


Reformed

by AGayBee



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fanon Tad Strange, Forgiveness, Human Bill Cipher, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Redemption, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, Trans Dipper Pines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2018-12-22 01:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 53,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11956884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGayBee/pseuds/AGayBee
Summary: Dipper Pines had expected his life to majorly improve once he moved back to Gravity Falls, and, for the most part, it did. He had his real family with him, and his good friends, too. School was going great and he was overall more happy. The only downside is there's now a former dream demon living in his basement who he was to take care of. Bill Cipher isn't too thrilled about their new arrangement, either. No one is, really.(not a fan of billdip? understandable! you can read up to chapter 25 w/o any billdip and still get a pretty full story!)





	1. Chapter 1

All at once, memories and thoughts swirled back to him. The general feeling of life was being restored inside him, and it was a new, overwhelming feeling. He tried to fight it back at first, but eventually realized that there was nothing he could do to stop it. It wasn’t necessarily a bad feeling, but it wasn’t a good one either. It was just sudden and powerful.

Eventually, his last memory arrived and he focused on it. He was in a burning room… in someone’s mind. Stanford’s? No, Stan _ ley’s _ . That was right. Fez and his family had tricked and defeated him… so, why was he alive again?

Bill’s eyes slowly opened. It took him a moment to adjust to the ability to see again, but once he did, he slowly took in his surroundings. He was in the middle of a small clearing in the woods. It was day, and it was very quiet… peaceful, even. The dream demon simply sat there for a moment. He glanced around at everything, just staring at it. He wasn’t sure how long he had been dead, or dormant, he guessed, but it sure felt weird being alive after all that time.

“My, my, my! Now, isn’t  _ this _ interesting…”

The familiar voice caused Bill to whirl around to see a man behind him. He blinked as he tried to remember him. His memories were still foggy and thought process was slow.

“Tad?” Bill whispered. Something felt off about talking, but Tad had his complete attention at the moment, so he didn’t really care to investigate. “ _ God _ , you look like disgusting primate.”

Tad let out a low, deep chuckle. “I could say the same about you, old pal.”

Bill snorted before looking down at himself, and then realized Tad was right. He was human as well.

Bill shrieked, scrambling to get away from himself, which was, of course, to no avail. He started breathing heavily. He was horrified- no,  _ disgusted _ with himself. How could he be human? Out of anything he could be, _ why was he human _ ?

“What did you do to me?!” he screamed at Tad.

“You think  _ I  _ did this?” Tad said, smiling. He snickered. “I’m flattered that you think I could do this, but I’m not capable of something that powerful in  _ this _ form…”

He then frowned, and his gaze became dark. “...Which I have  _ you _ to thank for.”

Bill stared at him, wheezing as he tried to regulate his breathing. He then felt something weird in his chest. Was it…  _ fear _ ? No, that couldn’t be right. He was _ Bill Cipher _ . He didn’t feel afraid of anything or anyone, _ especially _ Tad Strange. 

“You know, most people would probably say ‘no hard feelings’ after what you did to me,” he said with a malicious grin. “ _ But _ , then again, I’m not like most people, and what you did is…  _ very _ hard to forgive.”

“ _ What _ ? What are you doing? ...No, no, get away from me. Get  _ away _ ! No, no, no, no!  **_No_ ** _! _ ”

**_…_ **

“Today was _ amazing _ !”

Dipper and Mabel tiredly entered their beloved attic, which would now be their bedroom once again. Their beds were covered in newly bought sheets that were their favorite colors: baby blue for Dipper and hot pink for Mabel.

Mabel dropped Waddles, who she had carried up with her, down into her bed. She then proceeded to fall down next to him and dug her face into her pillow. Dipper casually sat down on his own bed and looked over at his sister and her pig. He smiled.

“It sure was,” he finally replied. “It’s so good to be back. I missed  _ everything _ .”

“I bet we missed you two more than you missed anything here.” Stan’s voice made both the twins look towards their doorway to see him and Ford suddenly there.

“And  _ I _ bet _ we _ missed you two more than you missed us!” Mabel exclaimed with a big smile.

“Now, let’s not turn this into a contest of who missed who more, Mabel,” Ford said and chuckled. “We all missed each other and are back together now, and that’s all that matters.”

“Speaking of that,” Dipper suddenly said. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re… really sorry for, like… making you come home from investigations into anomalies across the world? We know that was kind of important thing for you guys, and we feel bad that you had to come back from that for us.”

Stan and Ford looked at eachother, and then laughed. Mabel and Dipper exchanged puzzled glances.

“Don’t be sorry for anything, kid!” Stan told him with a grin. “You needed us! We weren’t just gonna leave you hanging, especially in a situation like  _ that _ … and either way, I kinda missed this old shack.”

“Let’s not worry about any of that right now,” Ford suggested. “I think it’s best we all get some rest, especially you kids. We’ve all had a long day.”

“Yeah, I’m pooped out!” Mabel chirped and collapsed back down on her bed. Dipper gave a tired nod of agreement.

Ford laughed. “Goodnight, you two.”

“Goodnight!” the twins exclaimed in unison.

Stan and Ford turned off the lights and closed the door behind them as they left. Mabel pulled her new covers over herself and Waddles, and settled down to go to sleep.

Dipper stared at her for a moment before getting up and removing his dark blue jacket and blue-and-white hat. Wendy had just given him back his hat that day, which was the best birthday present he could’ve asked for. He missed the old thing.

He changed into his pajamas: his red t-shirt that he had worn that day and some plaid pajama shorts. The brunette glanced at his sister and shrugged as he realized that she was probably just going to sleep in the clothes she was already wearing. That was alright with him.

Dipper looked down at himself and held back a sigh. He hated how his shorts brought out the femininity in his legs. At least his baggy shirt still gave the illusion of him having a flat chest.

He shook those thoughts out of his head, yawned, and crawled back into bed. He let out a happy sigh as he settled in.

“I have a good feeling about the next few years… Don’t you too, Mabel?” Dipper suddenly said.

“Absolutely!” she excitedly replied before letting out a tired yawn, but still keeping her enthusiasm. “Everything is going to be great and  _ perfect _ !”


	2. Chapter 2

_September 1st,_

_Yesterday was my first day back in Gravity Falls, Oregon, in three years, as well as my sixteenth birthday! Our friends and family threw a big party for my twin sister and me. It was probably the most fun either of us have had in a long time._

_I’m BEYOND excited to be back in this odd town for a lot of reasons, one of which includes that I will be able to research all the peculiar things here! This place is a beacon for all things weird, which I guess is why it also feels like the most real home I’ve ever had_ -

“Hey, you’re writing in your nerd diary!”

Dipper yelped as Mabel’s voice interrupted his writing. He almost dropped his journal and fumbled around for a moment trying to catch it, and fortunately did. He closed it and looked up at his sister, frowning.

“If by _nerd diary_ you mean my _journal_ ,” he sharply corrected. “Then yes, yes I am.”

“Pft, nerd diary, journal… It’s all the same,” Wendy said with a laugh.

Dipper had been sitting on the steps of the back porch, hoping to write in his journal while the Soos, Wendy, and Mabel were raking leaves. It was a quiet, peaceful, afternoon and he thought it would be the perfect time to write, but he guessed not.

“Whatcha writing about anyways, dude?” Soos asked, tilting his head a bit like a curious puppy.

Dipper fiddled with the edges of his blue journal in his lap as he spoke. “Just a little… introduction, I guess. I haven’t really found anything to _actually_ write about yet. I need to get out there and investigate, but I’ve been busy with getting ready to go back to school…”

“School _is_ important, Dipper,” Ford pointed out as he walked over to sit by him. He had been sitting on the couch behind Dipper with Stan. “You’ll always have time to explore on the weekends and after school, too.”

“I know,” he murmured, resting his head in his hands. “I’m just really eager to get back out there, again!”

His gaze fell upon his journal once more. It was dark blue and had a golden tree in the middle that had a big number one written on it. Dipper felt a warm feeling in his chest every time he looked at it. It was his birthday present from Ford, and it meant a lot to him. He had wanted something like this for a _very_ long time, and was, to say the least, thrilled to start writing in it.

Dipper perked up when someone behind him suddenly pushed down the bill of his hat to cover his eyes. It was, of course, Grunkle Stan.

“Don’t worry about it too much, kiddo,” he chimed in. “I bet the next time you take a step into those woods, you’ll find something. This town is full of weird stuff for you to discover!”

The brunette smiled and pushed his hat back up.

“I know. It’s just… Grunkle Ford already discovered a lot of what’s out there already. I want to find something new… If that’s even _possible_ at this point,” Dipper explained staring down at his journal again.

Ford stared at Dipper after he spoke. That seemed to spark a thought in his head and he was contemplating it. He gazed at the ground for a moment before looking back up at Dipper again.

“If… you want to research something new, I can show you something I haven’t studied, yet,” he hesitantly told Dipper.

Dipper’s head shot up and he met eyes with Ford. They were wide with surprise and curiosity.

“Whoa, wait!” Stan exclaimed, looking down at his brother. “You’re telling me there’s something you found that you haven’t studied yet? That’s really not like you.”

“And when did you even find the chance to go out there and explore?” Wendy added. “You and Stan have been so busy with handling the situation with the kids since you’ve got back, I didn’t even know you got any free time anymore.”

“It was before Stanley and I left Gravity Falls,” Ford explained. “When I found it, I wasn’t ready to research it yet. It was… a _sensitive_ subject to look into, I guess…”

“What is it?” Mabel eagerly asked.

Ford awkwardly replied, “I… I think it would be better if I just showed you first. Plus, I think I may just be overreacting. It might just be nothing.”

“I’m sure it isn't,” Dipper quickly reassured him. “Whatever you found, it’s probably weird because Gravity Falls attracts weirdness, remember? Either way, I’ll happy investigate it!”

“Well,” Ford exhaled, but gave Dipper a small smile. “If you think you can handle it, you can study and write about it all you want.”

Dipper lit up and hopped off the steps. He eagerly exclaimed, “Well, what are we waiting for?”

Stanford laughed a bit before he got up as well. He looked around at everyone else who all seemed to be interested too.

“If any of you want to, you can come along as well,” Ford told them.

“What kind of sister would I be if I didn’t go?” Mabel chirped, locking arms with Dipper who smiled at her.

“I gotta know what you found or the curiosity will kill me,” Wendy chuckled.

Soos shrugged and muttered, “Sure, why not?”

“There’s no way you all are going and _I’m_ not,” Stan said as he walked down to the steps towards the others. “Take us to it, Poindexter.”

Ford smiled at his family before he turned around and began to lead them into the woods.

Dipper admired the way that Ford could easily navigate through the woodland with such ease. It made him want to learn the area like the back of his hand so he could do the same. He thought about maybe mapping it out, and then memorizing it from there. That didn’t seem like a bad idea to him, but it would be quite time-consuming. He wouldn’t mind, if he was being honest with himself.

He also began to speculate on what his great uncle could be taking them to, though he kept coming to the conclusion that whatever theory he came up with was too ridiculous. His stomach churned with intrigue, but also worry. What could’ve been so “sensitive” that even Ford didn’t want to research it? Dipper thought Ford wasn’t afraid of anything, especially after all he had gone through.

Dipper’s thoughts were cut short as he suddenly bumped into the back of Stanford. For a moment, he thought he wasn’t paying attention, accidentally picked up his pace, and ran into him, but he soon realized that wasn’t the case. Ford had stopped dead in his tracks. Dipper was confused as to why, but then heard something. There was a commotion ahead of them, and it definitely did _not_ sound good.

Before any of them could speak up and ask what was happening, Ford whipped around and quickly but quietly instructed, “ _Get down_ , and don’t say _anything_.”

Everyone, fortunately, did as told and ducked down behind the bushes and trees in front of them. Dipper stuck close to Ford, and Mabel stuck close to him.

Stan looked over at Ford and mouthed the words “what’s going on?” but Ford just motioned for him to stay quiet. He turned away to look ahead of where they were hiding, and where the noise was coming from. Dipper managed to get a good look at what was happening as well.

There were two people in the small clearing that they were hiding right outside of. The first person was someone Dipper knew: Tad Strange. He hadn’t seen the man in years, but he easily recognized him. The other person, a boy who looked around Dipper’s age, was not familiar to him. The teen was on his hands and knees in front of Tad, and he looked hurt. Before Dipper could try to get a better look at him, Tad kicked him in the stomach, knocking the kid completely down. Dipper flinched. He hadn’t expected that.

“You know, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for a _very_ long time,” Tad said in a manically tone. He reached down and grabbed the teen by the collar of his sweater vest and pulled him up to his face. “It’s quite a rewarding feeling to finally get this opportunity, and I didn’t even have to work for it. What did you do to get yourself into that state, anyways?”

Dipper finally got a bit of a better look at the kid, thanks to Tad pulling him up. He was tall, boney, and had an undercut. The shorter sides of his hair were black while his fringe was blonde. He was wearing a white dress shirt, bowtie, and yellow sweater vest.

“Do you _ever_ shut up?” he managed to growl out.

Dipper felt his stomach drop as the boy spoke. He knew that the kid just got himself into a world of hurt by saying that. Why hadn’t he just kept his mouth shut?

Tad deeply frowned and viciously threw the other across the clearing. The blonde hit the ground with a yelp. He still tried to sit up, though, which surprised Dipper. He seemed to be very persistent. Tad walked over to him, and, once in range, punched him in the face. The blow knocked him down again, and blood began to drip from his lip.

Dipper was extremely confused, and frightened. He never knew Tad personally, but he had always seemed like a very friendly townsperson. Dipper wasn’t sure what had changed, but this wasn’t the once very kind man he knew. He also wondered what had this poor kid done to deserve _this_. The things Tad said and the way he spoke made this attack seem vengeful. It wasn’t just some random beatdown.

A smirk suddenly grew on Tad’s face as he looked down at his victim. He bent down over the teen and pinned him to the ground. He looked at Tad and thrashed about, but couldn’t get away.

“I just had a _great_ idea.” He snickered as he pulled a knife out of his back pocket. Dipper stiffened up as he saw the object. “Maybe this will make you feel a little more at home.”

The other tried to fight back harder, but it was still no use. Tad aggressively grabbed his face and muttered, “ _Hold still_ , or this’ll hurt more than it needs to.”

Once Tad brought the blade to one of the kid’s eyes, Dipper looked away. He covered his mouth to keep himself from accidentally making a noise. Mabel pressed herself up against him once the boy started hysterically screaming. The bloodcurdling shrieks soon began to mix with sharp, loud sobs. Dipper felt like he was going to throw up.

“Wendy! No- _don’t_!”

Stan’s exclamation made Dipper look up again. He saw that Wendy had ran out into the clearing and knocked Tad off the boy, who had also lost his knife in the process. Stan ran out after her, Soos following. Ford let out a frustrated sigh and ran out too. Dipper and Mabel hesitantly got up and trailed behind Ford.

Soos was kneeling next to the kid, and Mabel quickly joined him. The blonde was hyperventilating and had his hand over his right eye… Or where it had been. Dipper noticed that one of his blue eyes was now _on the ground_. There was a lot of blood, and it was everywhere; half of the stranger’s face, and now his hand, were drenched in it. Dipper knew for certain that he was going to be sick now.

Stan made sure to pick up the blade to keep it away from anyone else. Tad was pinned to the ground by Wendy. She punched him in the jaw, but when she went to hit him again, he caught her fist that time. The two sat there for a moment struggling with each other.

“What the hell is _wrong_ with you?!” Wendy shouted at him. She was steaming with fury.

Tad rolled his eyes and kicked the redhead off with ease. Ford swiftly caught her, though, and helped her to her feet. She gritted her teeth and glared at Tad.

The black-haired man slowly stood up and examined each one of them in the clearing. He reached up to wipe a bit of blood from his lips, and let out a small smile.

“The Pines family and friends.” Tad let out a small sigh and snickered. His gaze fell on each one of them individually as spoke. “Pine Tree, Six-Fingers, Ice Bag, Fez, Question Mark, and Shooting Star… It’s nice to see you all.”

Hearing those nicknames again sent shivers down Dipper’s spine. He never thought he’d hear them again, especially from someone like Tad Strange. How did he know about the Zodiac? How did he know that _they_ were the symbols on the Zodiac? Why was he _calling_ them by their symbols? There was only one other person that ever did that, and that person was _dead_. Dipper was one-hundred percent sure of it.

“Why are you attacking that poor kid?” Stan demanded, seeming to disregard every single suspicious thing that Tad had said.

“Poor kid?” Tad repeated and scoffed. “I can assure you that he is not some _poor kid_.”

He glanced over at Soos and Mabel for a moment. They were trying to help the stranger up, but he was barely responsive. He just laid there, shaking, crying, and whimpering. Something about looking at the three made Tad’s eyes widen and another smirk grow across his face.

“But,” he began with a low voice. “If you want to be this poor kid’s hero, be my guest. I’m sure he would very much enjoy help from you all.”

Ford opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Mabel exclaimed, “ _Guys_ , he passed out! We need to get him to the hospital or something!”  
“We can’t get the dude to the hospital in time,” Soos reluctantly pointed out. “He might bleed out before we get there!”

Everyone had looked to Soos and Mabel, and when they looked back at Tad, he had began to run away, much too far for any of them to catch him. He was gone in a matter of milliseconds. Ford frowned with frustration and let out a huff.

“I can try to help him. I have a bit of practice in the medical field,” he then offered. “We just need to get him back to the Mystery Shack. I can help him there.”

“I can carry him,” Soos said.

He then leaned down and carefully scooped the teen into his arms. Mabel worriedly kept by his side, even as he began to hurry back to the shack. The rest of them followed behind them.

Ford was by Dipper’s side when he suddenly murmured to him, “Something isn’t right about this.”

“I know,” he softly replied. “But if he’s just some normal kid, we need to help him. I don’t want him to die just because we’re paranoid.”

Stanford sighed and nodded in agreement. He looked ahead to see Mabel glancing at the stranger in Soos’ arms, making worried comments.

He really hoped the boy wasn’t who he thought he was.


	3. Chapter 3

When the group got back to the Mystery Shack, they rushed into the gift shop and Soos laid the boy on the checkout counter. Ford fetched the first aid kit, as well as some medical items of his own, and worked on patching up the blonde’s eye. The others stood by and watched anxiously.

Melody showed up a little after they arrived home and Soos explained the situation to her. She stood by and watched Ford as well, nervously rubbing her baby bump.

Dipper easily noticed how on edge Ford was. Who, or what, did he think this kid was? It made him uneasy and his mind make up all kinds of speculations, and none of them were good.

“There,” Ford suddenly said. He took a small step away from the boy. “He should be fine now. He can take some painkillers when he wakes up.”

“Good work,” Stan complimented him.

“What are we gonna do with him after he wakes up?” Soos then asked.

Ford glanced at the blonde on the counter, and then back at the others. He replied, “If he’s just some normal kid, we can take him to the hospital and try to get in contact with his family. If not…”

His words trailed off and he seemed to disappear into his thoughts. 

“Why wouldn’t he be?’” Melody questioned, bringing Ford back into reality.

Stanford rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked back at the stranger again, before looking down at the ground. He hesitantly explained, “What I wanted to show Dipper… wasn’t there. It’s gone, but this kid none of us have  _ ever _ seen before was instead. It’s… too convenient.”

Dipper raised an eyebrow and impulsively asked, “What do you think he is? Is he what you were trying to show us?”

The older man sighed and stuck one of his hands inside his coat. He searched through one of his pockets, looking for something. He paused when he noticed the blonde on the counter beginning to stir. The others stared at him as well.

He had shifted a bit before letting out a loud, pained groan. He tried to sit up, pressing one of his hands to his forehead. His, now  _ only _ , eye slowly opened. He stared ahead of himself, and then met eyes with Stanford. His demeanor almost instantly changed.

He snapped right up and growled out, “ _ Sixer _ .”

Ford immediately lashed out and pinned the blonde down to the counter by his neck with his hands, practically strangling him. The teen shouted obscenities and violently thrashed around, trying to break free of Ford’s grasp.

“Jesus  _ Christ _ !” Stan shrieked. He just stared in horror, unsure of what to do, as did most of the others.

Dipper had jumped back to get farther away from the scene. He stared at Ford and the stranger with wide, scared eyes. He was confused and  _ terrified _ at what was happening before him. Dipper glanced to his side where he saw Mabel in the same state. He stepped in front of her, and she latched onto one of his arms for comfort.

“Let me go! Let me  _ go _ !” the blonde shrieked. “I’m going to rip you apart _ cell by cell  _ with _ my bare hands _ if you do not  _ let me go _ !”

All of a sudden, he bit down onto one of Ford’s hands that was holding him down. He dug his teeth deep into his skin, drawing blood. He shook his head like a wild animal that had just caught it’s prey, tearing up Ford’s hand. Ford managed to keep his grip, despite the fact that he was obviously in pain. The boy once again surprised everyone when he lashed out with one of his hands and scratched Ford’s face, knocking Ford’s glasses off.

Unfortunately, Stanford lost his grip as the other attacked him. He muttered swears to himself and stumbled back a bit, seemingly shaken up by the boy’s aggressions.

The blonde took his opportunity and scrambled up and off the counter, but ended up just hitting the ground with a loud thud. He pushed himself back up, though he struggled to do so for a moment.

He looked around in a frenzy, making eye contact with every single person in the room. He seemed to realize how screwed he ways and pressed himself up against the wall. His chest shook with every heavy, panicked breath he took.

“What… what did you do to me?!” he stammered out, reaching up to feel his bandages. “ _ What did you do to me _ ?!”

“H-hey!” Mabel suddenly stepped in front of Dipper to make contact with the blonde. Dipper tensed up and tried to scream for her to get away from him, but he found himself paralyzed with fear. “I-It’s okay! We’re trying to help you! We saved you from the guy who was attacking you. We’re friends. It’s alright!”  
“F-fuck _off_ , Shooting Star!” he quickly spat, his hands balling up into fists. Dipper and Mabel both flinched at that nickname. Mabel took a step back as the realization of who this was hit her.

Wendy suddenly stormed past the brunette and wasted no time swinging her first at the blonde, hitting him dead in the face. His head impacted with the wall behind him and made a loud, unsettling bang.

He wobbled for a moment, dazed, until he eventually hit the ground again. He was unconscious once more. That was probably a mix between how hard he hit his head, the previous damages to it, and the shock he seemed to be in.

“Someone take him down to the basement,” Ford ordered as he stormed over to the vending machine, unlocking it to reveal the stairway. His voice was low and demanding. “Lock him in one of the bathrooms,  _ now _ .”

Wendy was about to pick the blonde up, but Stan stepped in and did instead. This time, instead of being careful with him like they had before, Stan practically dragged him to the stairway. Wendy followed behind him.

Ford, Soos, Melody, Dipper, and Mabel stared at the stairway in silence for a very long time.

“What just happened…?” Soos muttered after a minute or two. He had his arms protectively wrapped around Melody.

“I was right,” Ford mumbled as he walked back over to the counter.

Dipper looked at him and grew concerned. His face and hand were stained with blood, though not that much, fortunately. He then kneeled down to the floor to grab his glasses and put them back on his face.

“Are… are you okay, Grunkle Ford?” Mabel meekly asked, cautiously stepping towards the counter.

“I’ll be fine, Mabel,” he calmly said as he stood back up. “He didn’t have the strength to hurt me too bad.”

The next few minutes were quiet once more. No one wanted to talk in detail about what had just happened. Wendy and Stan soon came back up, and Stan immediately walked over to his brother.

“You alright?” Stan simply asked.

Ford nodded and went back to use some gauze to wipe the blood off himself.

“Then would you mind explaining what the hell is going on?” he then snapped. “There is no way that’s who I think it is. He’s  _ dead _ .”

Ford sighed and paused for a moment.

He, once again, reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a picture. He hesitantly handed it to Stan. Stan’s eyes widened as he stared at the image. The others quickly gathered around to get a look as well.

“What is it?” Dipper quietly asked.

Stan sighed and looked away as he turned the photo around to show the others. Dipper’s heart sunk and stomach twisted as he his gaze fell on it.

The image showed a stone statue of Bill Cipher. It looked like it was in the same clearing that they had been in. Of course, they had already suspected that the boy might have been Bill by his use of Ford and Mabel’s nicknames, but the picture confirmed it.

“You have to be kidding me,” Wendy murmured and shook her head.

“I really wish I was,” Ford said in a low voice. “I found that statue right before Stanley and I left Gravity Falls. It was the remains of Bill’s physical form, and it shouldn’t have been there. It should have gone away with everything else from Weirdmaggedon… I  _ knew _ something wasn’t right about it. I should have done or said something about it, but I was scared. I… didn’t want to think about the possibility that he could have come back after everything we went through.”

Ford’s eyes shifted to his brother as he added, “...And everything  _ you _ went through.”

Stan’s anger faded a bit, and his gaze softened.

“This is all my fault,” Ford muttered, pressing his unwounded hand against his forehead.

“No, it’s not,” Dipper told him. “You couldn’t have stopped this. Even if you would have said something, neither you or anyone of us would’ve known what to do. Bill is powerful, and we don’t understand that much about him. We wouldn’t have known what to do with a statue of him, or that he would turn into a human, or whatever is going on… It’s okay. None of us blame you.”

Ford gave him a small smile and murmured, “Thanks, Dipper.”

“Well, what are we going to do with him now?” Melody asked. “Just keep him in your basement bathroom?”

“I think we should kill him,” Wendy sharply suggested. “Before he kills us, or anyone else. We can’t let anyone get hurt by him ever again.”

“I absolutely agree,” Stan said with a nod. “The only good Cipher is a dead Cipher.”

“We can’t be  _ murderers _ !” Mabel intervened. Her eyes were wide with disgust. “We wouldn’t be any better than he is if we just kill him!”

“It’s  _ justified _ , unlike anything he’s ever done!” Wendy argued, throwing one of her hands up in the air. “We’re not safe if he’s around. We would be doing every living thing a favor by killing him!”

“Whoa, wait!” Dipper quickly exclaimed. “Shouldn’t we be thinking about  _ why _ Bill is a human instead of just immediately trying to kill him? That’s not exactly a normal thing to happen...”

“Dipper’s right,” Soos agreed. “It doesn’t make sense for some triangle dude who was dead to suddenly be not dead and a person.”

“Is he even a human?” Melody questioned. “He could just be possessing someone for all we know, or something like that. We could just be killing some poor, innocent kid’s body and losing Bill.”

“You’re very right, Melody,” Ford concurred. “I think before we decide to do anything else with Bill, we should try to figure out if he’s completely human, and, if so, why he is. I could run some tests on him, but it may take me a few days to get the results back.”

“It would be worth it,” Dipper told him and nodded. “We really need to find out what is going on.”

“So, we’re just going to keep  _ Bill Cipher _ in our basement?” Stan scoffed. “Is that  _ safe _ ?”

“I can keep him restrained and that bathroom secure so he can’t get out,” Ford explained. “I won’t let him get out, and if he does, I’m sure we can stop him. He’s vulnerable in this form.”

There was a moment of silence in the group. No one seemed to have any more complaints or arguments against what Stanford was suggesting.

“So, we’re all okay with this plan?” he double-checked. “I’ll keep Bill in the basement, safe and secured so he can’t get out. I’ll run tests on him and see what I can figure out.”

Everyone collectively nodded and let out murmurs of agreement before going quiet again. There was a very long time of silence as everyone tried to come with to their own terms with Bill’s return.

This wasn’t going to be easy, and each one of them knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi there!!  
> so a little background: i've been working on this fic since the day gravity falls ended, BUT i've rewritten it a bunch so i dont have THAT much done but i still have quite a bit! this fanfic is my pride and joy, though it i dont think its that great lol  
> im a high school student and taking a filmmaking and film studies class so i tend to be quite busy, so i dont get to write all the time unfortunately. BUT i do have quite a few chapters saved up so i'll post them here and there!! i dont have a specific schedule, so just try to keep an eye out for whenever i post  
> ALSO i am posting this on wattpad just bc i have a lot of followers from an old account who would enjoy seeing my new work and dont use ao3. this is my first time using ao3, actually!! im still getting used to it lol  
> thanks so much for the support!!! <333


	4. Chapter 4

Three days had passed since Dipper and his family had found Bill and put him in Ford’s basement. Ford had been down there pretty much the entire time, and whenever he came up, he didn’t talk about it. Dipper assumed that whenever he had new and/or important information, he would tell them, so he didn’t pry.

Dipper nervously tapped his fingers on his desk as he thought about the whole Bill situation. He had loads of theories and speculations, though pretty much all of them made a little sense or were too complex, even for Bill. He wanted to ramble to Ford about it, but he had a feeling that he didn’t want to talk about it. No one did, really. Finding out the dream demon you worked so hard to get rid of was now alive and human was a hard thing to think about, let alone discuss.

The brunette shook those thoughts out of his head. Today was his first day of school in Gravity Falls, and he should be more focused on that than the former-dream demon living in his basement.

He glanced down at his schedule that he had placed on his desk. This was his third hour, English, and so far, he didn’t recognize anyone. He had Mabel and Candy in his first hour, Creative Writing, and Grenda in his second hour, Chemistry. He would have lunch with all his friends and sister, but it looked like for now, he was alone in his third hour.

“Hey! You’re, uh, Dipper Pines, right?”

The voice made Dipper jump. He looked up to see a familiar face. _Gabe Bensen_? He hadn’t seen him in years, but he hadn’t changed too much either, so he was easily recognizable. Dipper wondered why he was talking to him, or even remembered him or his name.

“Um, yeah!” Dipper awkwardly replied. “Puppet-Crazy-Gabe, right?”

The blonde snickered. “Geez, I haven’t heard that name in a _long_ time, but yeah, that’s me. You can just call me Gabe, though. I am _so_ sorry you had to meet me at that horrible phase of my life. My whole puppet obsession has been over with for a couple years now.”

Dipper couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, no, it’s okay! I think we’ve all been through weird obsessions in our lives.”

Gabe laughed before taking a seat next to Dipper.

“So… you, uh, remember me?” Dipper hesitantly asked, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. Gabe nodded. “I-I didn’t think you would!”

“I remember both you and your sister! How could I forget?” he exclaimed. “That was… some puppet show! I would’ve much more appreciated it now then back then. I was the _worst_.”

Dipper laughed a little. “It’s alright, man! Don’t worry about it.”

“I, uh, haven’t seen either of you around here in a long time,” Gabe pointed out. “Did you guys just enroll here or something?”

“Oh, yeah! Mabel and I just moved back here like a couple of days ago, and we also accidentally got enrolled late, so we missed the first few days,” Dipper explained. “We used to live in California, but we moved here to live with our great uncles instead. We’ll be staying here.”

“Well, it’ll be good to have you two back again!” the blonde told him with a smile. “You guys were always so nice. I wish I could’ve been better friends with you back then.”

Gabe paused for a moment before hesitantly speaking again. “Hey, do you think that Mabel will forgive me for being such a freak back then? She seems really sweet, and I feel awful for how I treated her when I first met her. I’d really love to apologize.”

“Dude, yeah! Of course!” Dipper enthusiastically replied and chuckled. “She’ll totally understand! But, if you were looking for another shot at being with her, I’m afraid she’s already taken.”

“That’s alright! Turns out girls aren’t my thing, anyways,” Gabe said with a light laugh.

Dipper got a little too excited at that.

“You’re gay?”

“Yeah. Is there a problem with that?” Gabe said, giving Dipper a worried look.

“Oh, no, no, _no_! Not at all!” Dipper quickly exclaimed, feeling his face heat up. “I’m bi, and Mabel’s pan! I even have a gay uncle! I just… got really excited at meeting someone else who is, that’s all.”

Gabe laughed again and Dipper joined him. He had to admit that he was already becoming really fond of his classmate.

“You can come sit with us at lunch if you want!” Dipper offered. “You could apologize to Mabel and meet our other friends.”

“That sounds perfect,” Gabe replied. He gave Dipper another smile right before the bell rang. Dipper felt his heart pounding in his chest at class got started, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off Gabe.

The rest of the day passed by quickly after that. Gabe had lunch with them, and made up to Mabel, who was, of course, very understanding and eager to have a new friend. Dipper ended up having sixth hour with Pacifica. Mabel and Dipper decided to walk back home after school instead of getting a ride. Mabel had made sure to tell Dipper every single detail about her day that he hadn’t heard already on the way home.

“Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Ford!” Mabel exclaimed as she entered the shack. “We’re home!”

“Stan’s out running some errands, but I’m in here,” Ford called from the kitchen.

Mabel happily skipped into the room with Dipper trailing along behind her. She immediately went digging through the fridge for a snack.

Ford was sitting at the table and he smiled as he saw his niece and nephew. “How was your first day of school?”

“Great!” Dipper chirped as he sat down at the table with Stanford. He put his backpack on the ground beside him. “I think we’re going to have a good year.”

“That’s good to hear!” Ford replied.

“How was _your_ day, Grunkle Ford?” Mabel asked as she leaned back on the kitchen counter. She had a tub of ice cream with her and began to eat right out of it with a spoon. Dipper rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but smile.

“Well, I finally got the results back from all the tests I did on Bill,” he said.

Dipper perked up, and his eyes widened with curiosity.

“All the data I collected is telling me that he’s _completely_ human,” he began to explain. “Nothing I have indicates that he’s possessing someone or that the body isn’t human. He functions just like any of us would. He eats, sleeps, goes to the bathroom. He just seems… _normal_. If I didn’t know he was Bill, I would think he was just another teenager like you two. In fact, he seems to be your age, too.”

“How is that _possible_?” Dipper murmured, voice low in bewilderment.

“I have no clue, Dipper,” Ford admitted and shook his head. “I had him sedated while I ran my tests on him so he couldn’t try to attack me again. When he woke up, I tried to interrogate him for answers, but he wasn’t cooperative, to say the least. He has stopped talking all together now. All he does is eat the scraps of food I give him in the morning and at night, and sleep. He won’t say a word to me.”

“But he _loves_ to talk!” Mabel exclaimed. “Of course he goes quiet _now_.”

Ford let out a small chuckle at that before staring off out the window. He then sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Dipper stared at where Bill had attacked him. The bite on Ford’s hand was covered with bandages now, but the scratch on his face wasn’t. It was still very noticeable, and it made him wonder if it would leave a scar. Dipper winced a bit as he noticed how close Bill had gotten to actually clawing one of his eyes.

“I’m trying my best to get answers and even just keep an eye on him, but it’s tiring,” Ford confessed as he continued to stare off. “I hate to admit it, but seeing Bill again is emotionally draining… I have a lot of trauma thanks to him, and he brings back all those awful memories. I… I felt like I was finally free of him, but he’s back again… I just want him gone for good.”

Dipper’s heart sunk. He remembered the fact that his great uncle had to deal with Bill for decades longer than he had, and Dipper himself was already pretty messed up just from the one summer he had with him. He couldn’t imagine what it must feel having known Bill for over thirty years, and coping with the paranoia and trauma that stemmed from him and his actions.

“Hey, I have an idea!” Mabel suddenly chirped between bites of ice cream. She sat down the tub for a moment as she continued. “What if Dipper and I took care of Bill instead? We could feed him in the morning before we leave for school, try to talk to him whenever we get home, and feed him in the evening! I know Dipper’s been _dying_ to get involved with this kind of stuff again, and I wouldn’t mind helping out! The Mystery Twins could officially be back in action, and you wouldn’t have to put up with him. It’s a win-win!”

“Mabel, that’s a great idea!” Dipper excitedly replied. He turned to face Ford again. “I _really_ want to help you anyway I can, and I think this would be a great way for us both to do that. Even though Mabel and I also have our fair share of trauma from Bill, I think we could handle it. We haven’t had to deal with him as long as you have. You’ve already been through enough with him, and you deserve a break. Let us help you.”

Ford paused for a moment as he pondered the idea. He then replied, “How about this: you two can feed him tonight as a sort of trial run. If you still think you want to do it, and can handle it, then the job’s all yours, but I also completely understand if you don’t want to afterwards. I won’t hold any judgement against you if you end up not wanting to.”

“That sounds great!” Mabel said. “You up for the task, bro-bro?”

“Of course I am!” Dipper replied back and smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

Dipper awkwardly stood outside the bathroom door where Bill was kept. It was covered in complicated locks that Ford had explained to Dipper on how to undo. It took him a moment to unlock them all, but he managed.

The brunette glanced back at his sister who gave him two thumbs up. They had agreed that if they were going to take this responsibility, that Mabel would feed Bill in the morning before school and Dipper would feed him in the evening. That meant that Dipper would be the one to go feed him now.

He held a paper plate that had leftovers from that night’s dinner and a plastic cup of water on it. He took a deep breath. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he was horribly anxious. He had his new pocket knife in his jacket pocket, that was a birthday gift from Grunkle Stan, so if Bill tried anything, he at least had a weapon to defend himself with. Plus, Mabel would just outside the door and ready to leap to Dipper’s rescue.

The brunette hesitantly opened the door, entered the bathroom, and closed the door behind him.

Dipper was surprised at just how small and barren the room was. There was one light on the ceiling, an old toilet, and an extremely plain and old sink. There wasn’t even mirror.

Bill sat in the corner with his legs pulled up to his chest and face buried in his knees. He hadn’t even bothered to look up at Dipper. The brunette took a good long look at the handcuffs that Bill were in. They looked uncomfortably tight around Bill’s scrawny wrists, but for Dipper, it made him feel safe.

After an awkward moment of Dipper just standing there, staring at Bill, the blonde glanced up at him. As soon as he realized that it was Dipper, and not Stanford, his head arose completely. He stared at Dipper with his one wide, bright blue eye.

Dipper saw the bruise on his face from where Wendy had punched him. Dipper could’ve sworn that he had a few new ones, too, but he didn’t think much of it. He did notice that Bill looked tired, kind of sick, even, and just generally miserable. It was odd to see his enemy in such a state, but the vengeful side in Dipper felt pleased to see him like that.

“Pine Tree?” he muttered in a quiet voice. Dipper winced at the nickname. Bill seemed surprised to see him, but his shock quickly turned to annoyance. “What do _you_ want?”

“I brought you something to eat,” Dipper plainly told him. He sat the plate and cup on the ground in front of him. “Mabel will feed you in the mornings, and I’ll feed you at night.”

Bill just continued to stare at Dipper. The brunette couldn’t really make out what he was thinking, but he looked… confused. Dipper shrugged it off.

“Well, uh,” he murmured. “See you tomorrow?”

Bill gave no reply and just looked away.

Dipper rolled his eyes and left the room. As he closed the door behind him, he relocked all the locks.

“How did it go?” Mabel eagerly asked.

“Fine, I guess?” Dipper said with an unsure expression. “I think he was surprised to see me and not Grunkle Ford, but I think he stopped caring pretty fast.”

“Did he eat?” she questioned, tilting her head.

“He didn’t even look at the food,” Dipper mumbled and put his hands in the pockets of his navy-blue jacket.

“I bet he just didn’t want to eat in front of you,” Mabel pointed out. “He probably just doesn’t want to appear dependent on us. He probably thinks it makes him look weak, and Bill Cipher would _never_ want that.”

Dipper snickered. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

The twins started to head back upstairs.

“Hey, Dipper?” Mabel suddenly asked.

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about this whole Bill situation and I kind of came up with an idea!”

Dipper raised an eyebrow at his sister. “What is it?”

“Well, Bill’s kind of vulnerable now, right?”

Dipper nodded in agreement, which made Mabel continue. “So, what if we used that to our advantage? Like, it’s kind of manipulative, but I think it might work!”

“You’re losing me,” Dipper told her.

She exhaled. “What if we tried to get Bill to empathize with us and realize how much of a big jerk he was?”

Dipper stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Mabel. She stared back, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Mabel, you’re kidding.” He scoffed when she didn’t reply. “He’s _Bill Cipher_!”

“Yeah, I get that!” Mabel said with a roll of her eyes. “But it’s kinda different now, you know? I mean… didn’t you see how freaked out he was back in the gift shop, or how much he was screaming after Tad ripped out his eye? That doesn’t seem too Bill Cipher-y to me!”

Dipper rubbed the bridge of his nose with annoyance. “Well, I’m sure he’s a bit more sensitive now that he’s human, but-”

“Well, that’s what I’m saying!” she eagerly exclaimed, interrupting her brother. “He’s more sensitive now, so maybe he’d be more sensitive towards our feelings. Maybe if we’re nice to him enough, he’ll start to feel bad about all the awful things he did to us!”

“So, you just want an apology out of him?”

“No- well, an apology would be nice, but I was thinking that having Bill as a friend is better than having him as an enemy.”

Dipper opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find an argument. “I… I guess that’s true. He’s really smart and knows about a lot of things that we don’t know, so he might have some really interesting information he could tell us if he was on our side.”

“See? That’s what I’m saying!” Mabel excitedly said. “We could learn a lot from him if he was our friend, so let’s try to make friends with him!”

“I mean, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try,” Dipper reluctantly murmured. “But just don’t get your hopes too high, Mabel. At the end of the day, he’s still a bad person and I’m not sure he’s going to have a change of heart just because you’re nice to him. You might get hurt, too. He’s really manipulative and he might catch onto what you’re doing and stab you in the back.”

“I’ll be fine! I can tell when a jerk is lying to me or not,” Mabel replied with pride, putting her hands on her hips. “You’ll give it a shot too, right?”

Dipper paused and looked away from her. He sighed as he began to trudge back up to the gift shop.

“ _Maybe._ ”


	6. Chapter 6

“There is absolutely no _way_ those kids are going to take care of him! What are you thinking, Ford?!”

Mabel and Dipper sighed in unison as Stan continued to shout.

They had just finished up dinner in the kitchen and Dipper was about to go down to feed Bill, until Stan decided to voice his anger about it. Stan hadn’t seen him take dinner to Bill the night before, nor Mabel bringing him breakfast that morning, so it was only now that he could rant about it.

“You’re making a big deal out of this,” Mabel complained. “We’re just _feeding_ him. Would you rather have us let him starve to death?”

“Sweetie, I think you know my answer for that,” Stan said and crossed his arms. Mabel deeply frowned.

“It’s actually important that we keep Bill alive and at least not hungry,” Dipper chimed in. “He won’t talk to us if he thinks we’re purposefully trying to starve him.”

“Why do you need him to talk?” Wendy asked. She was leaning on the entryway of the kitchen. She had just had dinner with them and was about to go home, but stopped after Stan had started yelling about Bill. “If you’re looking for an apology, I don’t think you’re going to get one.”

“Trust me, I know that,” Dipper said and crossed his arms. “We just need to know how he became human. It’s important.”

“Why?” Soos asked with a shrug. “I mean, sure, it would be cool to know how he turned into a human, but I don’t really see how it’s _important_.”

“Changing a powerful, immortal, creature of energy to a puny, mortal human isn’t exactly easy, or even really heard of,” Ford began to explain. “Keep in mind that Bill had a lot of powerful enemies, some of which were as evil and chaotic as him. If any of them came into our universe and to do this to him as revenge, that could end up being a _big_ problem for Earth.”

“Do you think maybe Tad Strange and him were enemies?” Melody asked. “He beat the snot out of him and ripped his eye out after all.”

“Possibly,” Ford pondered. “But that’s an entirely different situation, and either way, I don’t think Tad is much of a threat to the entire world. We just need closure on what happened to Bill so we can be prepared if some powerful, universe-destroying creature did this to him, and may have decided to make humanity their next target.”

“Huh, I guess when you put it like that, it i _s_ pretty important that Bill tells us what happened to him.” Soos chuckled.

“I think you’re missing my point here!” Stan exclaimed. “I don’t want Bill anywhere near those kids. He’s going to try to hurt them, or worse.”

“Stanley, they can handle this,” Ford argued. “They’ve defeated Bill before as a dream demon, and they’d be more than able to take him down as a human if he tried anything. Either way, Bill barely even moves or speaks anymore, and he has restraints. I doubt he’s going to try to hurt them, especially since he’s relying on them for food now. He’ll die without them, and I don’t think he’s stupid enough to do that.”

Stan let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, but if he even tries to lay even one finger on them, I want them to never lay a foot in that basement ever again.”

“That sounds fine to me,” Ford agreed. Stan just crossed his arms and didn’t reply.

“Well, I’m going home now that we’ve got that all settled,” Wendy suddenly said. “Goodnight, guys. See you tomorrow.”

Everyone said goodnight to Wendy as she left. Melody and Soos left the kitchen to go restock, and Stan decided to go lend them an extra hand. Mabel left the room to go upstairs to get ready for bed. Dipper was just about to leave to go give Bill his food for the night, but Ford stopped him.

“Dipper, I know this is something that’s going to be very unpleasant, but it’s necessary,” Ford began to tell him. “You need to clean Bill’s eye socket and change his bandages every day. I’ve been doing it, but if you and Mabel want to take full responsibility of him, this _is_ something you need to do.”

The brunette winced a bit at that, and Ford noticed.

“It is a rather unsettling task, I know,” he added. “If you don’t want to do it, I won’t hold it against you. I can do it myself, if needed, but if you wouldn’t mind, I’d very much appreciate if you could do it.”

Dipper thought about asking Ford if this was the one task he could chicken out on, but his thoughts came to the conclusion that he was just being a big baby. Sure, it was a little gross and he was absolutely terrified at the idea of being that close up to Bill, but he could do it. It couldn’t be _that_ bad.

“I’ll do it,” he simply stated.

Ford then explained and showed him what he needed to do. Dipper would have to put a sort of flush in Bill’s empty socket to clean it, then clean his eyelids with just water, fortunately, and apply a type of healing gel to them. The flush was the part Dipper was dreading.

Once he got all of the supplies he needed to clean Bill’s eye, and Bill’s dinner, Dipper headed downstairs to the bathroom the former-demon was held in. He was already getting a hang of unlocking each of the locks on the door. He entered, shut the door behind him, and immediately placed Bill’s meal on the ground.

Bill was sat in the same corner as he always was, but this time he was already looking at Dipper. His gaze fell onto the items in Dipper’s possession. Bill looked back up at him and seemed to tense up.

“Hey, so,” Dipper hesitantly began. “I’m going to have to clean your eye-socket and replace your bandages. Ford said he used to, but I’ll be doing it from now on.”

Bill was obviously very on edge. Dipper saw it in the way his tiny body stiffened and shrunk away from him, and his wide, suspicious gaze. It was weird knowing that Bill was, for lack of a better word Dipper could think of, _afraid_ of him. Dipper was used to it being the other way around… but he didn’t mind. It made him feel in control and gave him some confidence, at least.

Dipper carefully walked over to Bill and sat in front of him. Bill was so incredibly tense that it was taking Dipper off guard. All he wanted to do was clean his eye and change his bandages. He was _helping_ him. What did he think he was going to do to him?

“I’m going to take them off, okay?” Dipper warned him before leaning forward.“Tell me if anything hurts too much.”

Dipper tried to keep up the whole “be nice to Bill” thing for Mabel. Currently, his kindness to Bill was just not being rude, which worked for the time being.

Dipper carefully removed the bandages off of Bill’s eye. After he did, he couldn’t help but stare for a moment. It seemed kind of irritated, but Ford had told him that it would be that way for a little while. Ford had also mentioned that Bill was very fortunate that Tad had gouged out his eye so perfectly. He had very few, tiny cuts around his eye and on his eyelid. If Tad hadn’t so precisely cut out Bill’s eye, Bill would’ve been in a much more difficult situation with damage on his eyelid.

Nonetheless, it was a gruesome sight, but it wasn’t as gruesome as it had been when his eye was originally ripped out. Either way, it was still something Dipper didn’t think he would ever be fully accustomed to seeing.

“Just get it over with,” Bill suddenly grumbled, snapping Dipper out of his thoughts. He didn’t sound irritated to Dipper’s surprise. He sounded empty, if Dipper was being honest with himself. He wondered if Bill didn’t want to think about his missing eye, and what had caused it to be missing. It wouldn’t be something Dipper would want to remember either if he was in Bill’s shoes.

Dipper reluctantly leaned closer with the saline in one hand, and carefully grabbed the side of Bill’s face with his other to adjust it to a more comfortable position for the both of them. Bill almost seemed to flinch when he reached out, but Dipper ignored it and continued. He held down Bill’s eyelid as he squirted the saline inside. Dipper noticed Bill wincing a bit and didn’t want to imagine what that felt like.

Afterwards, Dipper cleaned Bill’s eyelid with ease and applied the gel. He then carefully applied new, minimal bandages to replace the old ones. He sat back and felt proud of himself for doing so well for his first try.

“All done,” Dipper told him. Bill then slowly opened his working eye again and softly ran his fingers on his new bandages. “There’s some painkillers with your dinner. Take them after you eat.”

Bill just simply nodded, and looked away.

Something about the way that Bill had just seemed to… give up was almost heart-breaking to Dipper. He was grateful that Bill wasn’t trying to kill him, or even be an annoying asshole, but it just didn’t feel like Bill. He seemed broken… Had Tad attacking him affected him that much? Or was it the embarrassment of being taken care of by his mortal enemies? Or maybe a combination of both?

Dipper shook the thought of his head. This was _Bill Cipher_ he was talking about. He could be miserable for once. It was the _very_ least he deserved after how much he had fucked up Dipper and his family.


	7. Chapter 7

Bill’s eye opened wide as he awoke from his sleep. He immediately shot up, grabbing his chest. It took him a moment to relax his breathing and realize what was happening and where he was. He was a human now, living in Sixer’s bathroom… _right_.

The blonde then let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the cold, hard wall. He sat there and stared at the ceiling.

He had nothing better to do than just sit and think or sleep, but he had already slept so he would have to go for thinking right now. His mind ended up thinking about Pine Tree and Shooting Star.

He found it peculiar that they had started feeding him instead of Sixer. Why were they taking care of him in general? Why hadn’t they just killed him yet? Were they working up to it? No, the Pines were too soft for that… but even then that didn’t explain why they were making sure he was fed, or tended to his recently emptied eye-socket.

Bill’s thoughts were cut short as the door to his room opened. Shooting Star stepped in, and, oddly enough, didn’t shut the door behind her. He instantly tensed up.

Bill raised an eyebrow in confusion. According to what Pine Tree had told him, she shouldn’t be here right now. He had already had his first meal of the day, and her brother always brought his second one. Did he sleep through Pine Tree trying to feed him? Had the kid just forgotten?

“You already fed me,” Bill reminded, crossing his arms as best he could with his handcuffs on. He turned his head away from her.

“I know!” she chirped. “I’m not here to feed you!”

Bill’s gaze snapped back to her. He tensed up even more. What did she want?

“I’m going to take you upstairs and you are going to take a shower,” she explained, pointing towards him. “You _stink_.”

The blonde narrowed his eyes towards her. He then sniffed himself to see if she was right. Mabel couldn’t help but giggle a bit at that, making Bill grumble.

Shooting Star was always so cheerful and chipper whenever she came down. She would very kindly greet him and smile, no matter what. She would even sometimes sit there for a moment and try to talk to him. She would ramble on about how she had made breakfast that morning and explain the whole process to him. Despite the fact that he never replied or even acknowledged her, she kept up the same bright attitude every time. It confused Bill, and sometimes annoyed him, too, but he found a little entertainment out of it. He was so extremely bored that he’d take _anything_ he could get.

“C’mon!” the brunette exclaimed, gesturing for him to get up. “Grunkle Ford has to take off your handcuffs.”

Bill’s stomach dropped at the mention of Sixer’s name. He really didn’t want to see the old man. He had been actually enjoying not seeing that brute, but he guessed good things never lasted.

The blonde hesitantly got up and walked over to Shooting Star. He stumbled as he wobbled on his legs, but fortunately caught himself by grabbing onto the sink. He hadn’t been on his feet in… well, he wasn’t sure the exact amount of time, but a while. His legs were weak and not used to being stood on, or even move.

“Do you need help?”

The worry in Shooting Star’s voice and face made Bill feel so incredibly embarrassed and shameful. What kind of needy, weak creature had he become?

He shook his head in reply, so she turned around and stepped forward so he could follow her out of the bathroom. Ford was waiting a few steps in front of them. He gave Bill a dark stare, and Bill returned the favor.

The older man stepped closer to Bill before grabbing his wrists without warning. Bill became almost completely stiff with caution as he did, but fortunately, all Sixer did was unlock the cuffs with a key he had. He took the restraints off of his wrists and stuffed them into a pocket in his coat.

Bill let his hands drop to his sides for the first time in a long time. He wanted to sigh and relax in relief, but was still too worried about Sixer to drop his guard.

“This is a privilege, and you should think of it has such,” he then sharply told Bill. “It would be in your best interest to not do something you’ll regret. Am I clear?”

Bill rolled his single eye. He instantly realized that was a stupid decision.

“ _Hey_ .” His voice became low and dark. He leaned closer to Bill, leaving little space between them as he stared him dead in the eye. “If you so much as lay a finger on Mabel or anyone else in this house, you will return to this basement with _multiple_ broken limbs and you will _never_ see the light of day again. Am I _clear_?”

Bill gritted his teeth.

He ever so badly wanted to swing his fist at Stanford, knock him to the ground, and bash his brains in, and in theory, he really could- but his rationality warned him not to. Ford was bigger than him and could easily kill him with his bare hands. Not only that, but a wave of heaviness fell over him. This happened from time to time now, and he was becoming way too accustomed to it. He felt his entire body, mostly his chest, become heavy. Everything felt like it was weighing him down, and it took his mind with it. It drained Bill of every single feeling and emotion he had, replacing it with this horrible feeling of emptiness. It made him give up every last bit of fight he had in him.

He nodded.

Sixer seemed satisfied with that response. He stepped back and turned to his niece.

“I’ll be working on some stuff down here, but if you need anything, don’t be afraid to come get me,” Ford explained. His voice was so much warmer and lighter when he spoke to her. “Don’t be too long.”

“We won’t!” she replied and smiled. “Come on, Bill!”

Mabel gave Bill a smile as well before waving for him to follow her. He did as told and walked along behind her. She led him out of the basement and upstairs.

As soon as they entered the gift shop, Bill had to squint as he adapted to the new lightning. It was pretty dark down in the basement, and it also had no natural light, which was pretty much the opposite of what the gift shop was like. Shooting Star seemed to notice and paused to give him time to adjust.

After a moment of Bill blinking a lot, he looked around. The blonde took in the nicer, much more open environment for a moment, enjoying it. He felt more comfortable in here than the cramped basement, and he liked the lighting that the setting sun was offering to the room.

Bill also noticed Question Mark, Fez, and Question Mark’s girlfriend (Or maybe wife, now? Bill wasn’t sure.) were also in the gift shop. The two men seemed to be restocking the merchandise, while Question Mark’s girlfriend/wife (Wasn’t her name Melody? Once again, Bill was unsure.) was making new attractions out of some scrap taxidermy parts. They noticed Bill and all gave him unwelcoming looks. He restrained himself from doing something he’d regret.

Mabel then continued to take him out of the giftshop, through the rest of the house, and into their bathroom.

“Okay, so, you know how a shower works right?” Mabel asked. Bill gave her a nod. “Great! You can use any of the products in there, just get clean! The towels are there, and there are some clothes here; they’re Dipper’s, but he doesn’t mind! I’ll wash your clothes that you have now afterwards, and the next time you shower, you can change into those… Y’know, we should really get you your own clothes… Oh, well! That’s for another day!”

Mabel took a moment to see if Bill had any questions, but he was as quiet as always.

“Okay, well, I’m going to wait outside the door while you get clean,” she told him. “When you get out, Dipper will put on some new bandages and clean your eye. If you need anything, let me know!”

The brunette gave him one last smile before leaving and closing the door.

Bill stood there by himself, staring off for a moment. He then shook his head and turned around. He hesitantly removed his clothing, which was a new, foreign feeling… he didn’t like it. He also removed his bandages before going to turn on the shower.

Once he got in, Bill allowed himself to relax underneath the water. It was a refreshing and calming feeling. He stayed still for a while with his eye closed, relaxing for once. He hadn’t realized how gross he felt until now, which made him very thankful for being able to take a shower. The warm water relaxed his muscles and felt nice against his cold skin. This was the first actually nice thing that he had really experienced ever since he came back to life. He wanted to stay in that shower forever.

After what at least _felt_ like forever, Bill finally washed his hair and then his body. He was reluctant to get out of the shower but eventually did. He grabbed one of the towels, dried off, and then put on Pine Tree's clothes that were left for him. There was a red pair of boxers, a pair of fuzzy, black socks with blue polka dots, grey sweatpants, and a dark-blue, baggy hoodie. They were comfortable and carried the pleasant smell of laundry detergent.

Bill turned around and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and froze as he did. He stared at the unfamiliar human before him. His stomach twisted with uneasiness as he realized that was him… That’s _him_ …

He stepped closer to the mirror to get a better look at himself. He stared at his wet, blonde and black hair. He wondered what it looked like when it was dry. He then inspected the freckles that covered his face, _and_ the bruises and wounds.

Bill reached up and began touching his features with his hands. He ran his hands across his ears and tugged at his earlobes. He squished and stretched his cheeks, ran his fingers across his cheekbones, and pulled lips in all different directions. He then opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, touching that too. He ran his fingertips along his teeth, and poked at his extra sharp top and bottom canine teeth. Eventually, he found himself looking at his eye, and lack of eye.

The color of his one remaining eye reminded him of the color of his magic, which was both pleasant and painful to remember. His heart sunk as he looked at his missing eye. His eyelid was shut due to the lack of an eyeball, so he just looked like he was permanently winking.

“How attractive,” Bill growled to himself.

There was suddenly a knock on the door. Bill swung his head around to look at it as it opened. Mabel poked her head around it and made eye-contact with him.

“Hey!” she greeted. “Everything okay?”

Bill nodded and she stepped in.

“Alright! Dipper’s waiting for us in the attic,” she explained. She then stared at his hair for a moment before speaking again. “Hey, my blow dryer is there, too! Do you want me to dry your hair for you?”

“Sure,” Bill muttered and shrugged.

Shooting Star lit up a bit as he gave her a verbal response. He was surprised to see her get so excited over hearing one word from him.

“C’mon, let’s go!”

The brunette then gently grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the bathroom. Bill wanted nothing more than to rip his hand away from her, but he didn’t want to think of the consequences that would have. Sixer’s threat loomed over him as he stared at her hand on his. He knew he wasn’t allowed to lay a finger on her, but what about the other way around?

Shooting Star finally let go when they reached her and her brother’s bedroom. She let Bill walk ahead of her as she shut the door behind them.

Bill looked over to see Pine Tree laying in his bed. He had been watching something on his laptop with some earbuds, but had pulled them out and set aside his laptop when he saw Bill and his sister. He sat up to look at them.

“Look who’s clean!” Shooting Star then exclaimed, gesturing towards Bill as if she was presenting him. Bill held back an annoyed groan.

“I almost forgot you were doing that today,” Pine Tree admitted, resting his head in his hand. “You ready for me to take care of his eye?”

“Let me dry his hair first, and then you take care of that,” she said as she walked over to her own bed. Bill then noticed her fat pig, who was much bigger now than the last time he had seen him, and brown goat sleeping at the end of her bed. He glared at them.

“Quit trying to make enemies with Waddles and Gompers and come over here!”

Bill’s head snapped up to look at her to see her with her hands on her hips. He let out a sigh before he walked over to her. She pat the side of her bed, signaling for him to sit there, and he did.

Bill made a face at the noise the drier made and the way it felt on his hair. He could see Shooting Star giggling over that, and frowned. He tried his best to just tolerate the horrible sound and the weird feeling of hot air on his head. Fortunately, it didn’t take Shooting Star too long to dry his hair.

“There we go. All done!” she chirped before looking at her brother. “Dipper, you can take care of his eye now.”

Pine Tree gave her a nod of acknowledgement. “Alright.”

He sat up and leaned over to the nightstand next to his bed. He opened a drawer in it and pulled out all the usual supplies. The boy then walked over to his sister’s bed and sat next to Bill. They went through the same process as always. Bill was becoming more comfortable with it, especially now that Pine Tree was doing it and not Sixer. He shook that thought away. Bill really didn’t want to think of Ford.

“Okay. All good,” Pine Tree informed him once he was done. “Does it feel alright? I think I put the bandages on a little weird.”

Bill gave himself a moment to feel the bandages before murmuring, “They’re fine.”

“You’re getting really good at that, bro-bro!” Shooting Star commented.

Pine Tree gave her an awkward smile. “Thanks! I try my best.”

“Have you ever thought of being a nurse? I think you’d be pretty good at it,” she then said.

“N-not really? I think I’ll pass on that,” her brother replied and chuckled. “I’d rather do something else.”

“Well, you gotta think of some kind of career soon! We’ll be graduating before you know it!”  
“Hey, you do too!”

Shooting Star opened her mouth to argue but paused as she realized she was unable to come up with a valid protest. She shrugged before falling onto her bed next to Bill. Pine Tree just laughed at her.

All three of them became distracted as the door to the attic suddenly opened. Bill held back a sigh as he saw it was Sixer.

“Bill should come back down now,” the older man said. He looked at Bill from head to toe and narrowed his eyes. “...Why is he wearing Dipper’s clothes?”

“He has nothing else to wear, so Dipper said I could let him borrow some of his clothes,” Shooting Star explained as she sat up. “I wasn’t just going to make him wear the same pair of clothes he had been wearing. They were as dirty as he was!”

Sixer opened his mouth to speak, but instead just shook his head. “Well, if he’s all clean now, he should come back to the basement.”

Bill was about to stand up, but stopped and flinched when Mabel suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, wait, before you do that…!”

She then leaped out of bed to grab something at the foot of it. It was a dark-blue blanket, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. She happily handed them to Bill, who just took them and looked at her with confusion.

“These are for you!” she said and smiled. “I thought the blanket would make you a little more comfortable down there, and the toothbrush and toothpaste are to keep your teeth as nice as they are! I’d really hate for those pearly whites to get all yellow and gross!”

Bill gazed down at the items again before awkwardly replying, “Oh, uh… thanks.”

“No problem!”

The brunette gave him one last big smile before he got up and headed to the doorway. Stanford walked by his side as they headed back towards the basement. They were completely silent until they reached the gift shop, which was now unoccupied. Bill wondered where the others had went, but ended up just shrugging it off. He didn’t really care.

“You keep up the good behavior, and you can expect to come up here more often,” Sixer explained as he revealed the stairway.

Bill snorted. “Whatever.”

Bill nearly stumbled over as a six-fingered hand struck him on the back of the head. Bill knew it was coming, but it still hurt nonetheless.

“I don’t need your attitude,” Ford snapped. “You’re lucky you’re not dead.”

 _Yeah_ , Bill wanted to say. _Lucky._


	8. Chapter 8

_ Snap! _

Dipper’s gaze left his homework to look up and across the living room table where Bill sat. The blonde had fortunately been completely silent… until now. Had he just snapped his fingers?  
Bill seemed shocked with himself that he snapped his fingers before he let out a quiet, frustrated sigh. He rested his head in his hand and went back to staring at the wall again. Dipper decided to not inquire about the finger snapping. He knew that if he asked, Bill wouldn’t tell him anything, so he decided to not waste his time and went back to his homework.

After a couple more minutes of silence, Bill finally spoke up.

“Why am I up here?” he asked. Dipper noticed how annoyed he sounded.

Dipper stretched his arms as he replied, “Mabel said she’d be home soon and wanted me to go ahead and bring you upstairs. She said she had a surprise for you.”

The blonde raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“I dunno,” Dipper admitted with a shrug. “She didn’t tell me.”

Bill drummed his fingers on the table they were sat at. He looked like an impatinet, bratty child. “Why couldn’t she have just brought me upstairs when she got home?”

“Convenience, I’m guessing. Plus, she’s trying to be nice and keep you out of that basement as much as possible, if you haven’t noticed,” Dipper answered and tapped his pencil on his paper. “I mean,  _ I _ have no problem throwing you back down there if you really want to go back.”

Bill made a face at that and shook his head.

Dipper smirked. “That’s what I thought. Learn to be more grateful, asshole.”

That made Bill snort in frustration and go back to staring off. Dipper gladly returned to working on his homework. A minute or two later, Bill began watching him, but the brunette didn’t mind. The only thing that mattered to Dipper was that Bill kept his mouth shut.

A few more minutes passed before Dipper finally heard the door in the foyer open. He put down his pencil and closed his math workbook. He turned around just as Mabel and Wendy walked into the living room and up to the table. His eyes immediately fell onto the bags in his sister’s hands.

“Hey, boys!” Mabel happily greeted. “Oh, Dipper! Guess who got to drive home?”

“Wendy?” Dipper suggested with a grin.

“What? No!” Mabel exclaimed, making Dipper burst out laughing. “Me, I did!”

“Honestly, she’s not that bad of a driver!” Wendy admitted, patting the brunette on the shoulder. “Maybe Stan or Ford will get you two your own car to share soon. I dunno why they haven’t already. Don’t you have your license too, Dipper?”

Dipper nodded. “Stan’s looking for cheap cars, but Ford wants a working one that’s not going to break down every two minutes. I doubt they’ll settle on one anytime soon.”

“Bummer. Looks like you guys will be borrowing cars for a while then, I guess.” Wendy snickered.

“ _ Anyways _ !” Mabel loudly exclaimed. “Bill, I got you clothes!”

Bill sat up straight and gave her a weird look. Of course, he didn’t seem grateful, but at the same time, he didn’t seem  _ un _ grateful. He just seemed curious to Dipper’s surprise.

“It’s not a lot, but it’ll do for now! You’re taller and slimmer than Dipper, so hopefully these will be better than any clothes you’d be mooching off of him,” she explained. “Let’s go upstairs so you can try them on!”  
Bill stood up and Mabel eagerly led him out of the living room and up the stairs. Dipper got up slower and stood in the doorway with Wendy. They exchanged glances before Dipper asked, “Are you going to come, too?”

“Sure, why not? Soos doesn’t have me working till later today, so I got nothing better to do,” she said with a smile.

Wendy followed Dipper upstairs and into their bedroom. Mabel was already excitedly laying out all the clothes while Bill stood behind her and watched. Dipper sat down on his own bed and Wendy sat next to him.

“I got you mostly yellows and blacks because I thought those were your favorite colors. Also, there aren’t a lot of people who can pull off yellow as well as you do, so I thought we could take advantage of it!” Mabel happily explained after setting out all the clothes.. “Now, let’s try on these pants first.”

Bill awkwardly stood there. He glanced at Mabel, then at Dipper and Wendy, and then back to Mabel.

“Do I just… change right here?” he hesitantly asked.

“Well, you’re wearing boxers, aren’t you?” Dipper chimed in. “It’s not like we’re going to see anything.”

Bill promptly rolled his eye, as expected. He then removed the sweatpants he was wearing, leaving them on the floor. Mabel handed him a pair of black ripped jeans to try on first.

Fortunately, each pair of pants Bill tried on fit pretty well. Dipper had to admit, Mabel did a really good job picking out clothes for Bill.

Between trying on each pair, Mabel would let him get a good look in the mirror that was at the foot of Dipper’s bed. She would also compliment him and point out what about those pants looked good on him.

“Why is she being so nice to him?” Wendy had whispered to Dipper after an especially kind comment from Mabel to Bill. “Doesn’t she remember what he did?”

Dipper sighed and muttered back, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Okay, that was the last pair!” Mabel said as Bill handed her back the pair of shorts he had just tried on. She neatly folded it and set it aside. “Let’s move onto tops now.”

Mabel patiently waited for Bill to take off the hoodie he was wearing before handing him a shirt. Dipper held his head in his hand and watched with disinterest. He perked up, though, when he saw Bill’s back.

It looked like a birthmark, or maybe even a kind of scar, and it covered most of Bill’s back. It was a circle with symbols lining the inside of it, with Bill’s triangle form in the middle. Of course, Dipper immediately recognized it as the Zodiac.

“Whoa!” Wendy exclaimed, also recognizing the symbol. “What the  _ hell _ ?”

Bill flinched and looked over his shoulder at the red-head with a bewildered gaze He hissed out, “What is it?”

“Bill, why do you have that on your back?” Dipper sternly questioned.

“Have _ what _ ?” Bill replied, becoming a little distressed. “I have  _ no idea _ what you’re talking about!” 

“You have the Zodiac wheel on your back! It looks like a birthmark or something.” Dipper crossed his arms. “Care to explain yourself?”

“Kid, I know  _ nothing _ about this meatsack,” Bill growled as he whirled around to face the brunette. “I just got to see my own face for the first time only few days ago, so what makes you think I’ll know anything about a birthmark on my back?!”

“Because you’re a liar and obviously hiding things from us,” Dipper snapped back as he stood up from sitting on his bed. Bill took a step forward and gritted his teeth. He was about to speak again, but Mabel cut him off and stepped in between the two boys. “Hey, let’s just all calm down, alright?!”

She turned to look at her brother as she spoke. “Dipper, if Bill doesn’t know anything about it, then he doesn’t know anything about it. You gotta trust him a bit, okay?

She then turned around to face Bill. “And Bill, you need to learn to control your temper a bit, alright? Dipper was just asking if you knew anything about it. There’s no need to be so defensive!”

Bill grunted, turned his head away, and crossed his arms. Dipper let out a frustrated sigh before sitting back down on his bed. He had his back towards Bill and Mabel as he pulled out his phone to distract himself. Wendy stared at him for a moment before looking towards Bill and Mabel again as the previous process of Bill trying on clothes continued.

Eventually, Bill tried on all the clothes Mabel got him. They fortunately all fit pretty well, which made Mabel pretty happy. She let him change into one of the outfits before reluctantly deciding it was time to take him back downstairs.

As soon as Mabel closed the bedroom door behind her and Bill, Wendy spoke up.“You said you’d tell me what’s up with your sister and Bill… so what’s up?’

Dipper sighed as he sat up from laying down on his bed.

“Mabel thinks we would all be better off if Bill was our friend and not our enemy,” Dipper began to explain. “So she’s trying to be friends with him. I guess in theory it isn’t a bad idea but… I just don’t see it working out.”

Wendy chuckled. “That’s the most Mabel thing I’ve ever heard. I’m not surprised she’s trying to make him a good guy, but you’re right. I don’t see that working out too well either.”

“She has got him to talk a bit more, though, which is good. He used to only say one-word phrases, so he obviously feels comfortable enough to talk more,” Dipper admitted. “I just don’t know where this is going…”

Dipper paused for a moment. He looked down at his lap as he quietly added, “I still have nightmares.”

“I think we all do,” Wendy softly told him, resting her head in one hand. “Dipper, I wish I could tell you what’s gonna happen with Bill, but I can’t, unfortunately. I  _ do _ know that no matter what happens, good or bad, you’ll have your family here to support you and your sister…  _ and _ take care of Bill if it comes to that.”

The brunette smiled. “Thanks, Wendy.”

Dipper’s stomach twisted with unease as he thought about what would possibly happen to require them to finally kill Bill. He shoved back scenarios his mind created, not wanting to think about them. None of them were good.

God, he wished Bill had never come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all!  
> writer's block and school and mental illnesses have been kicking my ass so i havent had time to write lately, and i just recently rearranged a bunch of the future chapters and im still trying to decide if i like the order or not so chapters might be coming out a little slow for a while sorry aaaaaaaa


	9. Chapter 9

Bill let out a groan as he felt something nudge his shoulder. He cracked opened his eye and wasn’t surprised to see Shooting Star kneeled above him. She gave him a smile as she saw him opening his eye.

“Good morning, sleepy head!” she greeted. “Well, good  _ afternoon _ , actually. I see you're using the blanket I gave you! Do you like it?”

It took Bill a moment to register the question, as he was still groggy with sleep. He pulled the blanket off of himself and murmured, “It makes sleeping on the floor a little more comfortable, I guess.”

“Maybe I can see if Grunkle Ford would give you a better place to sleep, but no promises,” the brunette said. “ _ Anyways _ , do you wanna come upstairs and watch me bake?”

Bill sat up and stretched before replying, “Yeah, sure.”

“Great! You can be my taste-tester!” she said with a giggle.

Bill stood up and stretched one more time before following the brunette out of the bathroom.

“What are you going to bake?” he asked as they headed up the stairs. 

“Just some chocolate-chip cookies. Nothing too special,” Shooting Star answered. “They just sounded good and I wanted some!”

“Why not just go out and buy some?” Bill grumbled.

“Because home-made cookies taste better! Plus, it’s fun and gives me something to do!” she replied, and looked over her shoulder at him. “You’re just _ boring _ .”

He frowned. “I’m not.”

“Yes, you are! Your middle name should be ‘boring’. Bill ‘Boring’ Cipher!” She then bursted into a fit of giggles. “It has a nice ring to it!”

Bill sighed and rolled his eye, but had a small smirk on his face. He hated that he found the girl amusing sometimes, but she  _ was  _ his only source of entertainment after all. He would have probably lost his mind in that basement by now without her. That made him slightly grateful for her presence, but he’d never admit it.

Today, Ice-Bag was the only person in the gift shop and had given a wave to Shooting Star as they passed through. Bill thought it was a weekday, which meant that the Mystery Shack was opened, so Question Mark and his wife must have been leading a tour which would explain why there weren’t any tourists in the giftshop.

They walked through the living room where Fez was sat on the couch watching television. He and Shooting Star exchanged greetings too, and, as always, Bill got a cold stare from the old man. Bill was becoming pretty used to that at this point.

The blonde plopped down into a chair at the kitchen table while Shooting Star began to pull out ingredients, a mixing bowl, and other items she needed. She went ahead and turned on the oven to preheat it, and pulled out her phone and started quietly playing music from it.

Bill watched her for a few minutes before he began to focus too much on his thoughts.

He got that weird feeling in his chest that he always got when he remembered his peculiar situation. He could still remember the first time he ever came face to face with the girl and his stomach twisted as he realized how much she had really changed. Her hair used to end right at her hips but had now been cut shorter and ended in the middle of her back. Her braces were gone and her teeth were practically perfect. She was a bit taller and had really grown into her body. Her clothing style had matured as well. She still wore bright colors and odd designs, but they weren’t as childish as before. They were somehow more mature, but Bill couldn’t exactly put his finger on it. She had a second lobe piercing, which allowed her to wear even more earrings. He wondered if she planned to get any more piercings.

Bill then remembered that her brother had also changed a lot. Pine Tree had grown into his body as well and didn’t look as awkward as before. He looked more masculine, as well. He was the exact same height as his sister and the tiniest bit more well-built than her. The thing Bill appreciated the most about the kid was that he wasn’t sweaty and gross anymore. In fact, he was generally a _ lot  _ cleaner and better looking now. His curly, brunette hair was well-maintained and actually brushed. Even his clothing style was more mature and nicer, though he still did wear mostly reds and blues, and that damn trucker hat. Pine Tree had also gotten his ears pierced, but had stretched them to be bigger than the normal piercing size. Bill vaguely remembered overhearing the kid say that they were “double-zero’s” or something. If Bill was being honest with himself, he didn’t know much about human body modifications.

Bill had never expected to see those kids grow this much, though it had only been a few of years. His plan was to take over the universe that summer, so he had never expected to see them grow up, or much of them at all. The Pines weren’t supposed to get in the way… but, instead, they ruined everything. They were the whole reason why he was like this: a puny mortal, dependent on the people who killed him.

_ How pathetic _ , his thoughts murmured.

“You wanna try some cookie dough? It’s really good!”  
Bill snapped back to reality as he heard Shooting Star’s voice. She was shoving a spoonful of dough in his face. He raised an eyebrow before taking it and giving it a hesitant lick. His eye widened with surprise at the taste.

“Wow, that  _ is _ good,” Bill admitted before proceeding to eat more cookie dough off of the spoon.

“I’m glad you like it!” Shooting Star exclaimed and smiled. “If you like the dough, then you’ll definitely like the cookies after they’re done baking!”

Bill watched as she headed back to the counter to put globs of cookie dough onto a pan. He got bored after a couple of seconds of watching her and decided to look out the window instead.

Some of the trees outside were just beginning to turn from their normal shades of green to shades of orange, yellow, or red. Autumn must have just started, he thought… That made him wonder why the twins were here.

Bill knew that Pine Tree and Shooting Star had been staying in Gravity Falls just for the summer when he met them. Their parents had sent them here. Had their parents just sent them off again to stay with their uncles during the fall too? That seemed like bad parenting to Bill, but he then realized he didn’t really have any place to say someone was bad at parenting. What the hell did he know about parenting? Why the hell should he care anyways?

Before Bill could become more frustrated with himself, he suddenly realized that he eaten all the dough off the spoon. He frowned, a bit disappointed at that. He hated to admit it, but he  _ really _ liked it.

_ I’ll just get some more _ , he lazily thought in his head.  _ It’s not a big deal. _

Using his spare hand, Bill snapped his fingers. The foreign feeling of human skin and fingertips as he did so made his gut drop with realization.

He was _ human _ . He was  _ powerless _ … Why couldn’t he ever remember that? He’d been human for at least a couple of weeks now. He should be used to being powerless at this point, but he wasn’t. 

Bill let out a hard sigh and shook his head.  _ Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! _

“You okay?”

Bill looked up to see Shooting Star sitting down in the seat next to him. Bill grunted and turned away again.

“I’m fine,” he quickly muttered. He sat down the spoon on the table. 

“Why did you do that?”

Bill shrugged. “I dunno.”

Shooting Star frowned. “I’m not stupid, Bill. People don’t just snap their fingers randomly.”

Bill didn’t reply that time. He just ignored the girl.

“You used to snap your fingers when you used your magic,” she finally realized. “Are you trying to use your magic?”

Bill grinded his teeth together and continued to ignore her. He knew that whatever he said would spark some conversation that he was not interested in having. He just wanted her to let it go.

There was a long moment of silence before Shooting Star spoke again. “Do… you miss your magic?”  
Bill let out a defeated sigh as he gave in.

“ _ Yes _ . Of  _ course _ I do,” he hissed. Bill glanced over his shoulder at her. “I feel useless and puny without it. I don’t understand how you humans live with yourselves. How can you handle being so pointless?”

“Well, I’ve never been a powerful dream demon before! Being human is all I’ve ever known, so I guess I’m comfortable with it,” she replied rather cheerfully.

Bill’s eyebrows furrowed together with frustration. “And you’re fine with being so…  _ weak _ ?”

“I guess I don’t care about that kind of stuff.” She shrugged. “I may not be magical or all-powerful, but I’m happy with the way I am. I have friends and family that I love, and they love me! I can do stuff that I love, too, like baking, sewing, knitting, and other fun things! Having powers like you did would be cool, but if things stayed the way they were, I wouldn’t complain.”

Bill’s mouth hung open as he tried to find something to say. He then shook his head and looked away again, even more irritated now.

“I’m guessing you’ve never felt that way?” Shooting Star gently asked.

Bill restrained himself from saying or doing something he’d regret. He began to ignore her again.

“I’m sorry.”

Bill perked up. He glanced back at her again with a surprised look on his face. Her eyes showed real sympathy, which shocked Bill even more.

“I think everyone should feel that content with themselves. It’s a nice feeling,” she continued. “I don’t know a lot about your past or anything, but if you’ve really never felt that kind of happiness before, I’m sorry. That sounds awful.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the blonde muttered and stared down at the floor.

“Well, I think it kinda does,” Mabel replied. “Haven’t you ever wanted that before?”

Bill’s breath hitched. His mind decided to slide memories and thoughts to him that he did  _ not _ want to think about. He tensed up as he remembered things that he hadn’t thought about in years. He didn’t want this.

“I don’t want to talk about this,” he quickly spat out. His hands balled up into fists in his lap.

Mabel paused for a moment but then relaxed. “That’s okay. I understand.”

The timer for the cookies went off, distracting her. She looked at the oven and then back at Bill.

“If you don’t wanna talk about it now, that’s alright,” she said as she got up. “But if you ever wanna talk about it, or anything at all, I’m here for you. I’ll never make you talk about something that makes you feel uncomfortable, though. That kind of defeats the purpose of talking about something.”

Bill watched as she left to go pull the cookies out of the oven. He was completely shocked by what she had said, and that she seemed to be being completely _ genuine _ . He didn’t understand why she was always so friendly and patient with him. They were  _ enemies _ . He had tried to kill her and her family, and they had killed him. Was this her way of saying sorry? Did she have some ulterior motive? Was she trying to trick him?

Bill relaxed a bit as he remembered the type of person Mabel was. She wasn’t one to trick someone or use kindness to deceive them. She would use her kindness to  _ befriend _ someone… so, did that mean she was trying to be friends with him?

That thought didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would. Bill was reluctant to admit it, but having a friend in his current situation did sound kind of a nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey yall!!!  
> thanks so much for the support and patience! im trying my best to work on this more but school is just wearing me down, but im not giving up on this yet!! ill try to update at least weekly if i can keep up with that, but no promises unfortunately,,,,


	10. Chapter 10

“Hey, I don’t want to invade your privacy or anything, but could I ask you about something?”

Gabe’s question caught Dipper off guard. He looked up from his assignment to look at his blonde friend. Fortunately, their teacher was pretty lenient on letting students socialize in class, plus, they weren’t doing anything too important right now.

“What is it?” Dipper asked. He would’ve immediately had said sure, but Dipper had to admit that there were some personal things he didn’t want to talk about.

“Those, uh, scars on your arm,” Gabe said, gesturing to Dipper’s right arm. Dipper had the sleeves of his cardigan rolled up, so they were actually visible for once. “I’ve seen them once or twice, and I’ve never really seen anything like them before! I’m just a little curious, but I totally understand if you don’t wanna tell me. Scars are… _personal_ , sometimes. I get it.”  
Dipper looked at the odd scars on his arm and frowned at them.

“Oh, um…” Dipper sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He decided he trusted his friend enough to tell him about his scars. “Do you remember Bill Cipher? That triangle demon that tried to take over the world a few years back?”

Gabe’s eyes widened at that. “Uh, yeah.”

“Well… that summer, he tricked me into letting him steal and possess my body at one point.  _ Actually _ , that was the night that Mabel put on that puppet show for you!” Dipper gave him an amused, but nervous shrug and smile.

“Oh, that… actually explains a lot,” Gabe said with a small grin. “ _ Wow _ .”

“A-anyways, he stabbed my arm with a bunch of forks when he was possessing me,” Dipper continued to explain. “He actually hurt my body a lot, but that’s the only thing that left scars… well, _ physical _ ones. I got a  _ lot  _ of psychological ones!”

Dipper had an awkward grin on his face as he tried to joke the situation off, but it didn’t really work. Gabe’s eyebrows furrowed with worry and his shoulders drooped.

“I’m so sorry, Dipper. That sounds awful,” he softly said.

“I mean, I’ve had time to get over it, I guess,” Dipper meekly replied as he stared down at his desk. “I’ve been thinking about it more lately. I hate that I do, but it’s hard not to.”

“Why’s that?”

Dipper didn’t realize that he had blurted out that last bit until it was too late. He opened his mouth to lie to Gabe, but found that he didn’t want to… either way, Mabel had already told the girls and Gideon about Bill, and Wendy had let it slip to her friends, too. One more person knowing wouldn’t be that bad, especially since Gabe was already a pretty close friend of his. Dipper trusted him a lot.

“Can I tell you something really ridiculous, but you can’t tell anyone else about it?” Dipper hesitantly, but very quickly asked.

Gabe paused for a second, surprised at the question, but then nodded. “Of course, Dipper.”

“Bill Cipher is, uh… actually alive.” Dipper would never get over the nauseous feeling he got when he said that phrase. “We thought he was dead, but we found him a few weeks ago in the woods. He’s alive, and human now. He’s living in our basement, and Mabel and I take care of him.”

Dipper grew worried at the shocked expression on Gabe’s face. He hoped that telling Gabe about Bill hadn’t been a bad idea. Dipper didn’t know what else to say, so he waited until his friend seemed to gather his thoughts and calm back down. His gaze softened into concern instead of shock.

“That sounds like a _ lot  _ of responsibility,” Gabe replied in a low, but gentle voice.

“It’s not too bad,” Dipper admitted and shrugged. “He’s an asshole, but compared to everything else he’s ever done, he’s honestly not that bad… well,  _ yet _ , I guess. He still has time to become as awful as before.”

“I’m guessing that’s what’s what bringing back all those memories?”

“Yep, and other equally terrible shit he did. I’m learning to cope with it, though. I have to.”

Dipper sharply inhaled when Gabe’s hand was suddenly on his, but immediately relaxed. His touch was soft and gentle, and it was oddly comforting to Dipper. He looked up and met eyes with Gabe.

“That sounds rough, but I want you to know that you’re _ really _ brave for putting up with that. I don’t think I know anyone else who could do something like that,” he told him with a smile. “You’re really strong, Dipper. I’m proud of you… I’m not good with this kind of stuff, but if you ever need a distraction, I’m always here for you. I’m normal and boring if you ever need a break from all the weird stuff you seem to get into.”

“You’re not  _ boring _ !” Dipper protested with a huge grin. “You’re so much fun to talk to and hang out with! Plus, you’re a really talented singer! I still need to skip sixth hour sometime to hear you sing in choir.”

“ _ Or _ you could just wait until my choir concert,” Gabe said with a laugh. “It’s coming up soon.”

“Well, you better give me details about it. I’m  _ definitely _ coming.”

Dipper had the biggest smile on his face and the warmest, fuzziest feeling in his chest. Gabe was always so kind and patient with him, and he appreciated it a lot. They hadn’t known each other for too long yet, but Dipper already had a really strong connection with him. From what he had seen so far, Gabe seemed to feel the same way.

Dipper’s cheesy thoughts were cut off as the bell rang.

“Dammit. I didn’t finish my work,” Gabe grumbled as put his stuff into his backpack.

“It’s alright. Neither did I,” Dipper replied. “Um, if you want, we could hang out in the library after school and finish it.”

Gabe smiled at that. “That sounds great!”

“Perfect!” Dipper grabbed his stuff and started heading out of the classroom with Gabe. “It’s a date then.”

“Yeah,” Gabe murmured, still smiling. He began to walk the other way towards his fourth hour while Dipper headed to his own. “A  _ date _ .”

Dipper nearly tripped and fell to the ground as he heard Gabe mutter out the last phrase. His heart was suddenly beating at a million miles per hour. He looked over his shoulder, but the blonde was already too far down the hallway for Dipper to call to him. Did he  _ really _ hear that right?

Dipper kind of hoped so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is kind of short!!! :<


	11. Chapter 11

“He’s been up here too much lately. She needs to stop bringing him up here to just…  _ hang out _ . This isn’t what I had planned.”

“Trust me, Ford, I feel the same way, but I can’t argue with the kid. She makes a pretty good point about him not having done anything wrong yet.”

Ford sighed. “I suppose… but the moment that he acts out at all, he’s going back down there and  _ never _ coming back up again.”

Bill rolled his eye as he listened to the older pair of twins talking about him. They were standing in the doorway to the living room. They must have thought that neither him nor Shooting Star could hear their whispers from at the table they were sat at on the other side of the room, but Bill at least could. Shooting Star seemed to be more focused on the puzzle she had somehow convinced him to do with her.

He had to admit, he was liking the privilege of coming upstairs more often. It was much better than that cramped, dark bathroom, and had much more to offer him. Bill was never bored up here. There was always something going on. Plus, he was getting along pretty well with Shooting Star. He was beginning to tolerate her more and more as the days went by. She wasn’t all that bad, if he was being honest, especially compared to the rest of her family.

“Oh, another corner piece,” Bill pointed out as he picked up a puzzle piece.

Mabel let out an eager grin. “ _ Yes _ ! That’s the last corner! Great job, Bill!”

She let Bill place the piece into their barely complete puzzle. Bill wasn’t sure what it was yet, but he already didn’t like how annoyingly colorful it was. Had this kid ever liked anything simply-colored in her life? There was nothing wrong with something black-and-white every once in awhile!

Bill became distracted once more when he suddenly saw Fez walking over to them. He hadn’t been paying attention for a moment or two, so he had no idea what was going on now. He stiffened up.

“Hey, kid. Mind if I take Bill for a bit?” he asked.

“For what?” Shooting Star raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Bill was grateful that she didn’t immediately give him away. “You usually never want anything to do with him.”  
“Well, Poindexter and I both think that if Bill’s gonna be up here so often, he should make himself useful,” Fez explained. “He can come do some chores in the gift shop like you and Dipper do sometimes on the weekends. I’m sure Soos would like an extra pair of hands around.”

Bill winced at that idea. He hated to admit it, but he only felt comfortable upstairs around Shooting Star. He was guaranteed to be safe and treated like a living thing around her. Sixer easily became violent around him, and Bill expected his brother to be the same way. Pine Tree simply tolerated him, which wasn’t a bad thing but not necessarily an enjoyable thing either. Everyone else was indifferent to his existence… Shooting Star was the only person he could even vaguely trust or feel comfortable with.

_ Hey, well, even if someone ends up hurting and killing us, that’s not too bad of a thing,  _ his thoughts pointed out.  _ Do we  _ really _ want to spend the rest of our puny mortal life in Sixer’s basement? We gotta die at some point. _

Bill had to admit that his thoughts had a point, but he found himself shocked to be thinking about that. The idea of death still made his gut twist with unease, even if it would save him from the shameful predicament he was in. There had to be some other kind of solution… right?

“Hey, he’d get a chance to hang out with the rest of us,” Fez then pointed out. “You’ve been wanting him to get along with us, so this might be his chance.”

_ Wrong _ , Bill wanted to snap.

“Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to give it a try-”

“What?!” Bill immediately exclaimed, interrupting the brunette.

“It wouldn’t be that bad! Don’t you wanna do more than just hang out with me?” Mabel pointed out. “Come on, you can do it for today at least! Give it a shot! I think it’d be good for you.”

Bill was about to start arguing with her, but remembered that this was not his place to complain. In the end, he didn’t have a choice. Plus, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sixer standing in the doorway. He knew what would happen if he talked back.

Bill sighed, giving up. “ _ Fine _ .”

Fez let out a satisfied smile and motioned for Bill to follow him. “Alright. C’mon, Cipher.”

Bill clenched his jaw as he stood up and followed Fez to the gift shop. There were only a few tourists in there checking out all the pointless merchandise. Question Mark seemed to be getting ready for another tour while Melody was checking out a customer at the checkout counter, and Ice-Bag was on a ladder, fixing a light bulb that was on the ceiling.

Bill flinched a bit as Stan suddenly shoved a broom and dustpan into his arms. He awkwardly held the two items for a moment, and then looked up at the older man with confusion.

“Sweep up the gift shop in between tours. You’d be surprised by how much dirt one group of tourists manages to track in,” he explained. “You won’t be doing this everyday, but it’s what you’re doing for now. Do a good job, and  _ don’t _ get any ideas.”

Fez looked over his shoulder at Ice-Bag who was staring at them.

“Wendy knocked you out once, and I’m sure she’d be happy to do it again.”

Bill made eye-contact with the red-head who then gave him a smirk. Bill frowned at her and let out an annoyed grunt.

“And no attitude, got it?” he suddenly snapped. “You do what me or Soos or Melody ask of you. Capiche?”

“Capiche,” Bill reluctantly grumbled.

Fez then turned around to go talk to the others. Bill assumed he was explaining the situation to them, but Bill didn’t care enough to listen in. He just got to sweeping a corner of the room where no one else was in. 

Fortunately, the day went by quick and no one talked to him. He did his job and at closing time, Pine Tree escorted him downstairs and gave him dinner. For once, he was actually tired when he went to bed, which surprisingly resulted in a lot better rest than he normally got.

He was a little surprised the next day to find that Fez wanted him to do work again… and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on. He ended up working that entire week and didn’t get to see much of Shooting Star other than when she fed him before she went to school and said hi to him when she got home.

Bill ended up not minding much of the actual labor, but he was just bored. Shooting Star always talked to him whenever she brought him upstairs, but now no one talked to him. It left him with this weird feeling of loneliness that didn’t like at all.

Sunday marked Bill’s seventh day in a row of working, which meant he had worked for an entire week now. It had felt a _ lot  _ longer than that though. Most of the time he had spent with the Pines had felt extremely warped. He was sure it hadn’t been that long since he had turned into woken up in this human meat-sack, but,  _ God _ , had it felt like years.

It had been a pretty slow, uneventful days. Of course, all the other days had been pretty uneventful too, but something about today seemed to drag on more than the others. Bill wanted nothing more than for  _ something _ to happen.

Things were looking up for a moment when Shooting Star suddenly bolted into the room, excited about something. She had ran up to her brother and Ice-Bag who were at the checkout counter. Bill was about to go see what had gotten her so hyper, but something else grabbed his interest.

“I just want my money back! Is that too much to ask for?!”

Bill turned around to look at the checkout counter where a middle-aged man stood. He was yelling at Melody who had been answering the man’s questions just moments ago with no issues. Now  _ this _ was interesting, Bill realized.

“Sir, I’m sorry but I already told you that we don’t do refunds,” she replied very gently. She gestured towards the sign on the checkout counter that clearly reaffirmed what she had said. “There’s nothing I can do.”

“Uh, yeah, you can! You can just give me my money back!” the man shouted.

Question Mark quickly rushed over to the situation, calmly greeting, “Hi, Mr. Mystery here! What seems to be the problem?”

The man whirled around, so Bill was finally able to get a good look at him. He was shocked at the absolutely furious look on his face. Who got this pissed over what was probably just a couple bucks?

“Me and my children had an awful time on your tacky tour. We were all bored out of our minds by your cheap and sad excuses of exhibits,” the man snapped, putting air quotes around the word exhibits. “It wasn’t worth what I payed for, so I want my money back!”

“I’m sorry, dude, but unless you or one of your children got hurt, I can’t give you a refund,” Soos simply replied. “That’s just our policy.”

That somehow made the man even more furious. “Well, it’s a stupid and unfair one!”

He kept going on and on about it. Bill had been looking forward to something as ridiculous as this, but now he just kind of missed the peace and quiet. Plus, this guy was acting childish. Bill hadn’t seen such a pathetic excuse for a man in a while. 

The blonde became interested again as his gaze fell on the back pocket of the man’s pants. His brown leather wallet was about to fall out of it. Bill grinned and proceeded to set down his broom and carefully walk over.

“Mister, I’m  _ very _ sorry to hear that you didn’t have a good experience on the tour, but we can’t make an exception just for you,” Soos continued to explain.

“And no offense, but you didn’t even pay that much,” Melody meekly added. “We try to keep our prices reasonable.”

“It doesn’t matter  _ how _ much I paid!” he shrieked. “It’s still my hard earned money, and I want it back!”

Stan suddenly barged into the conversation, standing between Soos and the customer.

“Hey, I’d really suggest that you leave now before I have to get authorities involved,” he threatened. “You may think this trip is bad now, but wait till your kids get to explain to their friends back home that their dad got arrested.”

The man scoffed at that, but Stan’s threat seemed to work. He shook his head and muttered, “Fine! Whatever.”

As he whirled around to storm out, he ran straight into Bill. He knocked the blonde completely over and nearly fell over himself.

“Watch where you’re going, moron!” the man snarled as he recovered. He looked down at Bill, and his face shriveled in disgust as he saw the bandages on Bill’s face. “God, you’re all just a bunch of freaks around here, aren’t you?”

“Oh, because a missing eye is so weird, right?” Bill snapped back. “At least I’m not throwing a fit over a few bucks!”

The man threw up his middle finger to him and Bill eagerly returned the favor. The man then stormed out of the shop, slamming the door behind him. Bill was surprised to suddenly find Shooting Star at his side, offering a hand out to help him up. He stood up on his own, though.

“Bill, are you okay?” she asked with worried eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Bill reassured her, rubbing his the side that he had fallen onto.

He didn’t linger on it for too long, though. He then turned around to face Fez, Question Mark, and Melody. He took a couple steps forward and offered a wad of cash to them. They all stared at him with a very confused look. After a very awkward couple of seconds, Fez finally grabbed the money.

“Where the hell did you get this?” he questioned, flipping through the bills.

“That guy,” Bill simply replied, gesturing towards the door that man had just exited through. “He was too busy yelling to realize I was pick-pocketing him. That’s a few hundred bucks right there, so I’m not sure why he was so mad about the twenty he probably spent on that tour.”

Everyone stared at him for a moment with wide, shocked eyes. Stan was the first to burst out laughing. The rest ended up joining in.

“Bill! You can’t just steal from people!” Shooting Star disapprovingly exclaimed. She was the only one not laughing.

“Hey, he had it coming,” Bill said with a shrug. “Plus, I’m sure that’s probably the  _ least _ worst thing I’ve ever done. I don’t see why you’re complaining.”

“He  _ does _ have a point,” Ice-Bag exclaimed as she and Pine Tree walked over. “What he did is honestly a good thing, Mabel.”

“Why’d you do that anyways?” Pine Tree asked. “Felt like being nice to us for once?”  
Bill rolled his eye. “If that’s what you wanna take this as, sure. I just wanted to make things more interesting. Plus, he was being loud dick, and I liked it being quiet.”

“I could care less about _ why _ he did it. I’m proud of him!” Fez then chimed in. He suddenly gave Bill a big smile. “You did good, kid!  Talk about making yourself useful.”

All of a sudden, Bill felt a weird sensation of satisfaction wash over him. Everyone was finding enjoyment out of what he did and were laughing and smiling, and he was getting  _ encouragement _ … That was _ very  _ new. He always had a sense of humor like this, but nobody ever really liked it, mostly because they didn’t like  _ him _ .

Bill had to admit, he kinda liked this.


	12. Chapter 12

Dipper softly hummed a song that was stuck in his head as he headed downstairs. He gazed down at his red flannel shirt one last time before walking into the living room. Mabel, who he had been looking for, was fortunately there. Bill was too, to Dipper’s disappointment. They were sitting in front of the TV watching some animated movie. Bill seemed surprisingly interested in it.

“Hey, Dip-Dop!” Mabel happily greeted him. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to ask if you think I look okay,” Dipper said. Her nervously fixed his hair once more.

Mabel sat up and looked him up and down. “I think you look cute! What’s got you so worried over how you look?”

“Gabe and I are going to go get dinner together,” Dipper murmured. “It’s not that big of a deal. I just wanted to look a little nicer than usual.”

Mabel lit up and was about to say something, but Bill chimed in first to Dipper’s surprise.

“Gabe?” he repeated, finally looking at Dipper instead of the TV. His eyebrows furrowed together. “Do I know him?”

“I thinks so! I used to have a crush on Gabe. I put on an elaborate puppet show for him!” Mabel excitedly explained. “That was the night that you possessed Dipper, remember?”

Dipper’s stomach churned in unease. He hated how lighthearted Mabel always talked about “The Bipper Incident” (as she had so lovingly named it). He wished she would take it more seriously, especially around Bill. He wasn’t going to ever feel remorse for what he did if she didn’t point out how much that had damaged him.

“Oh, yeah! Now I remember,” Bill exclaimed. “Puppet-Crazy-Gabe… doesn’t that kid make out with his own puppets?”

Dipper sighed with annoyance. “He’s over that whole puppet thing now. He’s a really nice, _ normal _ , guy.”

“Doesn’t change that he used to kiss puppets.” A grin grew onto Bill’s face and all Dipper wanted to do was punch it.

“Bill, leave him alone!” Mabel interjected. She was still smiling to Dipper’s disdelight. “Gabe’s nice! I  _ would  _ say you’d like him, but… I don’t think you would.”

Bill snickered. “Thank you for at least being realistic.”

The brunette whirled around when he suddenly heard a knock at the back door. He relaxed as he knew it was probably Gabe. He was way too excited to get out of the house and away from Bill.

Dipper eagerly leaped to the door and opened it. Fortunately, Gabe was standing there. In every single way, he lit up when he saw the brunette. Dipper’s heart nearly skipped a beat and he felt his cheeks grow warm.

“Hey, Dipper!” he chirped. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,  _ definitely _ .” Dipper chuckled.

Gabe was about to say something else, but instead he paused and looked behind Dipper. He smiled and said, “Hey, Mabel.”

Dipper turned around as Mabel happily said hello back. He frowned as he noticed Bill had followed her into the foyer. He was lingering next to her with his arms crossed as he looked at Gabe from head to toe. Dipper tensed up at that. 

Gabe suddenly stepped into the doorway to stand next to Dipper. He narrowed his eyes at Bill before placing his hand on Dipper’s lower back. Dipper’s breath hitched and he felt like he was going to melt.

“We won’t be gone long. I’ll take good care of him,” Gabe told Mabel with a snicker. “We’ll bring you home some leftovers if we have any.”

“Alright!” she happily chirped. “You two lovebirds have fun!”

“It’s not a date!” Dipper sharply corrected. 

She rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh, sure.”

Dipper quickly ushered Gabe out of the door before Mabel could embarrass him any further or Bill could say something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im a little behind on writing rn, so updates are gonna be a little slower than usual, im sorry! ;n;


	13. Chapter 13

Bill had always been pretty indifferent to Ice-Bag. She never contributed much to anything or was all that important to him, so he never cared to give her much attention… but now that he had been working so much in the gift shop, he couldn’t help but be a little curious about her. Through listening in on some of her conversations with the others, Bill had managed to pick up a few things.

Ice-Bag was nineteen now and had cut her hair pretty short around a year ago. Despite the fact that she was technically an adult now, she had decided to remain in Gravity Falls to help Question Mark with the Mystery Shack, work with her dad, and help raise her younger brothers. Bill couldn’t completely understand why she would give up doing something meaningful (well, as “meaningful” as a human could be) with her life to take care of others instead. Bill didn’t understand why humans made most of the dumb decisions that they did.

Bill had to admit that Ice-Bag wasn’t too bad. She was rebellious, laid-back, and had a good sense of humor. He wondered if he could start talking to her like how he talked with Shooting Star. Another person to have conversations with sounded a little nice.

“What are you looking at?”

Bill snapped out of his thoughts as the redhead he had been thinking about, and subconsciously staring at, spoke. She was sitting at the checkout counter and was now looking at him. Bill frowned.

“Nothing,” Bill growled. He went back back to rearranging some merchandise that Question Mark had told him to take care of. “I was just… thinking.”

Ice-Bag raised one of her eyebrows before sighing and turning her attention back to her phone. Bill made sure to not look back again. He changed his mind. Maybe Ice-Bag wasn’t a great candidate for a new (as he reluctantly would call someone) friend… wait, why was he so suddenly interested in company?

Bill aggressively shook those thoughts out of his head.

Fortunately, the front door burst open and someone came in. The voice clearly belonged to Mabel to Bill’s relief. Bill turned around, happy to see her, but his optimism diminished as he realized she wasn’t alone.

It took Bill a moment to remember two of their names, but they eventually came to him: Grenda and Candy. The two girls had grown a little bit taller and looked a little more mature. Other than that, they really hadn’t changed too much, but he had honestly expected that. The thing that did surprise him was that Llama was with them too. She was also taller and was a little heavier than the last time he had seen her. She looked less stuck-up than normal too, which, if Bill was being honest, was a good look on her. She must’ve befriended the Pines after Weirdmaggedon, he assumed.

“It’s my girls!” Ice-Bag exclaimed as she stepped out from behind the counter. “It’s nice to see you guys!”

“It’s nice to see you too, Wendy!” Llama replied and smiled.

“Uh, who’s this?” Candy quickly asked, pointing towards Bill.

Bill held back a sigh as the girls finally noticed him. He put his hands on his hips and sneered. “What, you don’t recognize me?”

Pacifica’s eyes narrowed and she frowned. “Oh. It’s  _ him _ .”

“Yeah, this is Bill!” Mabel excitedly said before skipping over to Bill.

Bill didn’t fight her when she locked arms with him. He was getting used her physical affections and knew there was no use in fighting it. He just never returned or encouraged it, but that unfortunately didn’t deter her.

“Bill, say hi!”

Bill met her gaze for a moment before looking away and letting out a grumble. Mabel rolled her eyes.

“I expected him to look a _ lot  _ different,” Grenda then said. “He’s so tall!”

“I know! Isn’t he cute?” Mabel chirped, elbowing Bill in the ribs.

“I’m not cute,” he quickly retorted. “This meatsack is hideous.”

“What? No!” she exclaimed. “Bill, you’re beautiful!”

Bill rolled his eye. Before Mabel could try further argue, she became distracted by the door opening again. Pine Tree, Fez, Question Mark, and Melody came in. Bill recalled one of them mentioning going on an errand, but Bill couldn’t remember what kind of errand, or even who told him. Oh, well. It didn’t really matter to him.

“Oh, hey girls!” Melody said with a smile. The other three gave greeted them as well. “I didn’t know you all were coming over.”

“We’re having a sleepover!” Candy explained.

Bill snorted and whispered to himself, “Well, now that’s just _ great _ .”

“What?” Mabel poked him in the arm. “Stop being so grumpy. You can hang out with us! Sleepovers are fun!”

Bill scoffed. “Uh, no thanks. I’ll pass on that.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Llama chimed in. “I don’t want him hanging out with us either.”

_ That feeling is  _ very _ mutual _ , Bill wanted to snap.

“But you love hanging out with me!” Shooting Star pouted.

“Just because I like _ you _ doesn’t mean I’m going to like your loud, bratty friends,” Bill spat out.

_ Wait, shit. _ Bill’s eye widened.  _ What did I just say? _

“Did you just say you  _ like _ Mabel?” Ice-Bag asked. That seemed to catch Pine Tree’s attention as well, as he suddenly stepped in to listen.

Mabel looked up at Bill with wide, gleaming eyes. She had the biggest grin on her face that Bill had  _ ever _ seen. He gritted his teeth and stammered for a second before managing to choke out, “That’s not what I meant!”

“Liar!” Mabel couldn’t hold back her excited laughter. “You _ like  _ me!”

“I  _ tolerate  _ you,” Bill bitterly corrected. He crossed his arms and avoided eye contact with anyone in the room.

“Uh-huh, sure.” She snickered. “Admit it! You like me! I’m your best friend, and you like me!”

Bill couldn’t believe that he was getting frustrated over this. He let out a rough sigh before looking back at Shooting Star again. “Okay, fine. I _ like _ you, but that’s really not saying much considering my options of people in this house I can befriend.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Pine Tree murmured. His eyes narrowed.

“You’re kidding, right?” Bill snorted. “Do I really need to go through the reasons why I hate all of you?”

Pine Tree’s silence and shocked glare gave him his answer.

“Well, then let's start with you, Pine Tree.” Bill sighed and frowned. “You’re like a carbon copy of Sixer, which is a huge contributing factor as to why I don’t like you… but you’re also the entire reason that I had to worry about people interfering with my plans for Weirdmaggedon in the first place. If you would’ve just kept your head down and not bothered with those journals all those years ago, we would have never crossed paths and I wouldn’t be where I am today!”

Pine Tree opened his mouth to reply, but Bill continued instead. “Then there’s Question Mark and his wife. They’re boring. They don’t matter. They’re nothing special. I don’t care about them. The same would go for you, Ice-Bag, but you did knock me out that one time, so I’m  _ not _ your biggest fan.”

She frowned.

“Oh, and then there’s Fez and Sixer!” Bill paused for a moment before letting out a low laugh. “Fez and Sixer… they’re the whole reason any of us are having problems right now. If Sixer would’ve just finished the portal, we wouldn't have had any problems and Weirdmaggedon would’ve gone along perfectly fine all those years ago. If Fez hadn’t pushed Sixer into the portal, I would’ve just continued torturing Fordsy till I killed him or he offed himself. If Fez had never brought Sixer back, I wouldn’t have had to worry about his smart-ass getting in the way. If they hadn’t tricked me during Weirdmaggedon, I would be taking over the universe right now.”

Bill took a moment to breathe. “ _ But _ Shooting Star is the one who has caused me the least problems. If anything, she  _ helped _ me! I mean, she was the whole reason why Weirdmaggedon started in the first placed. I _ should  _ be  _ thanking _ her!”

Bill looked over at the brunette for a moment, but ended up still staring at her. The excitement that had been in her eyes and smile were completely gone now. She had stepped away from him and looked… horrified. Why was she scared? He was _ complimenting _ her!

“What? What did I-”

“Alright, we’ve heard  _ enough _ from you.”

Fez’s voice made Bill flinch. Before Bill had any time to realize what was happening, Stan was aggressively grabbing him by the arm and dragging him across the the gift shop to the vending machine. Bill felt like his arm was about to snap in half.

“Ow, ow, ow,  _ ow _ !” Bill shrieked. “ _ Hey _ , let  _ go _ !” 

Bill kicked and squirmed the whole way down the stairs to his room. Stan roughly tossed Bill in and slammed the door. The blonde scrambled to sit up, and then stared at the door. He snorted and let out an angry shriek. 

He sat there for a long time just heavily breathing and trying to pull himself together. He eventually calmed down and leaned against the wall.

“Asshole thinks he can just drag me around like that,” Bill grumbled to himself. He pulled his knees up to his chest. “I’m not some wild animal…”

Bill’s frustration faded away rather quickly… instead, he just kept thinking about Mabel and how scared she look of him. She had been so happy, but he said something to upset her… why did that bother him so much? It shouldn’t, but it did. It felt like something was eating away at him. He reluctantly labeled that feeling as guilt.

Bill sighed and reached over to grab the blanket she had given him. He buried his face into it and let out another frustrated, but now muffled, scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i got a little caught up!! i have a few more chapters written and some that partially written and/or outlined, so things are looking up a bit


	14. Chapter 14

_ October 26th, _

_ Stan and Ford decided to “unground” Bill yesterday morning, so he’s finally allowed to come upstairs again. Mabel was excited to hang out with him, but not as much as she would have been if he hadn’t said what he had said last week… but to my surprise, he apologized to her about that. _

_ I was in the kitchen when I overheard him in the living room with her. He didn’t necessarily apologize for WHAT he said, but just that it had hurt her feelings. Mabel eagerly accepted the apology, though. She made the compelling argument that it didn’t entirely matter WHAT he was apologizing for, but just that he WAS apologizing. I have to admit, it is a pretty big step for him, but we still have a long way to go and I have no idea if we’re ever going to get there. Mabel is, of course, still determined to “reform” him. _

_ I haven’t really talked to him much, but he seems quieter than usual. I don’t know if Grunkle Ford or Grunkle Stan did something to scare him into submission or something. Maybe he just  feels genuinely bad about what happened with Mabel. I’m really not sure, but it’s not like I can just ask him. He hasn’t told Mabel, so he DEFINITELY will not tell me. I hope that whatever it is, it isn’t a big deal. _

_ On a slightly different note, next week is November 1st, which means Bill’s been staying with us for almost two months now. It’s… kind of hard to believe. It still doesn’t feel real. He should be dead, but instead he’s a teenage boy being buddy-buddy with my own sister. It’s all just so weird, even for him- _

Dipper’s hand stopped writing as he felt his phone vibrate next to him. He frowned as he reached for it.

“Do I ever just get a moment to sit down and write?” he mumbled to himself.

Dipper’s annoyance quickly vanished as he realized it was Gabe calling. He smiled and eagerly answered.

“Hey, Gabe! What’s up?”

“Nothing much. I just wanted to talk to you.”

Dipper chuckled and his cheeks turned a faintly red. He knew he shouldn’t get so excited just to hear his Gabe’s voice, but he couldn’t help it.

“What are you up to?” Gabe then asked.

Dipper leaned back onto his pillow. “Just writing in my journal. Bill finally got ungrounded yesterday, so I thought I’d write about that.”

“I bet Mabel was excited about that.” Gabe snickered. “Is she hanging out with him right now?”

“No, actually. She’s spending the night at Grenda’s with Candy and Pacifica. For once she decided to not have a sleepover here, so I’m enjoying the peace and quiet.”

Gabe laughed at that. Dipper was about to start his next sentence, but he was cut off by shouting from downstairs. It was muffled, but still loud enough to be clearly heard, and apparently, even loud enough for Gabe to hear.

“Whoa, what was  _ that _ ?”

Dipper relaxed and exhaled. “It’s probably nothing. Stan and Ford get into arguments sometimes, so it’s probably just that. It’s nothing ever too serious.”

“Are you sure?” Gabe sounded worried.

“Yeah, it’s fine!” Dipper reassured him. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll die down soon enough.”

“What do you think they could be fighting about this late at night?”

“Honestly, it could be anything-”

Dipper trailed off as one of the shouts was so loud it drowned out his voice. That was clearly Ford’s voice, which gave Dipper a little relief, but the fact that he was practically screaming did not.

Dipper felt a horrible feeling of dread wash over him as the second voice screamed back equally as loud. That voice belonged to Bill.

“Oh no,” Dipper whispered to himself.

Gabe frantically asked, “What? What is it?”

“I-I think it’s Ford and _ Bill _ fighting, not Ford and Stan,” Dipper hesitantly replied.

“That’s  _ really _ not good.”

“Yeah, I know.” Dipper sat up and put his feet on the floor. “I should go check it out-”

Gabe was quick to interrupt him. “No, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea, Dipper. You could get hurt-”

Gabe’s voice was washed out by a sudden and loud  _ bang _ . Dipper flinched hard and his heart nearly missed a beat. He jumped to his feet and quickly exclaimed into his phone, “I-I’ll be right back!”

The brunette didn’t wait for Gabe to reply and threw his phone onto his bed. Dipper then scrambled out of his bedroom and to the stairs. As he stood at the top of the stairs, he could see Ford at the bottom. He had Bill pressed up against a wall with his arm twisted behind his back. Dipper assumed the bang he heard was from Ford slamming Bill against the wall. Bill was struggling and obviously still had a lot of fight left in him.

“What the fuck is happening?!” Dipper shrieked as he rushed down the stairs.

Ford’s head whipped around to look at Dipper. His eyes were wide as he stared at his nephew. He stammered over his words as he tried to reply. Bill almost immediately noticed that Ford was distracted and took advantage of that. He broke free of Ford’s grasp and shoved him to the other side of the foyer. To Dipper’s relief, they didn’t try to immediately attack each other again.

Dipper quickly jumped in between the two and faced Bill. He held his arms open to block the two apart and tried to remain calm, but he only grew more worried as he saw blood dripping from Bill’s lip.

“Bill, just breathe okay?” he softly told him. “Relax-”

“ _ Relax _ ?!” Bill shrieked. “Don’t you _ dare _ tell me to fucking relax after what that fucking-”

“Oh, what _ I  _ did?” Ford repeated. “Don’t try to pin this on me! You know damn well that-”

“Would you  _ both _ shut up?!” Dipper shouted, shooting glares at both of them. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but you _ both  _ need to calm down!”

Fortunately, there was a moment of silence. Bill was heavily breathing and physically shaking. Ford remained completely still, but he was by no means calm. Dipper felt his heart beating at a million miles-per-hour, but he knew that this wouldn’t end well unless he broke it up.

“Grunkle Ford,” he calmly started. He kept his voice as low and soft as possible. “I can take care of Bill. Just… go somewhere where you can calm down.”

Stanford hesitated for a long moment before finally relaxing. He met eyes with Dipper once more before stalking out of the foyer. Bill watched his every move as he passed by and left the room. Dipper assumed that Ford was probably going to go down to the basement. There was another long moment of Bill just staring at where Ford had just been.

Suddenly, he started breathing faster and before Dipper knew it, Bill was twisting his body around and raising his fist into the air. Dipper panicked and lunged towards Bill, grabbing his arm to pull him back. Unfortunately, Dipper still heard Bill’s fist impact with the wall.

“Fuck!” Bill immediately shrieked. He stumbled back and out of Dipper’s grasp. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, _ fuck _ !”

Dipper watched as Bill stumbled and then slumped onto the floor, trying to adjust to the pain in his knuckles now. He let Bill sit there, just wheezing and grabbing onto his own wrist.

After a couple of minutes, his breathing regulated and he seemed to calm down a bit. Dipper swallowed hard as he stepped closer to Bill.

“Bill?” His blue eye hesitantly looked up to meet Dipper’s gaze. He looked exhausted and miserable. “You can… come upstairs with me if you want.”

Bill took a good minute to think about that before standing up. He trudged past Dipper and started walking up the stairs. Dipper followed him.

As they entered the attic, Bill awkwardly stood in the middle of the room. He looked at Dipper with an unsure gaze.

“You can sit in Mabel’s bed if you want,” the brunette told him. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

Bill sighed before walking over to Mabel’s bed and sitting on it. Dipper watched as Bill examined his now red knuckles. They were probably going to bruise and maybe had some scrapes on them, but if Bill had punched the wall with full-force, it would’ve been worse.

“Are they bleeding?” Dipper asked.  
“No.”

“Well, your lip is… hey,  _ hey _ ! Don’t use your sleeve!”

Bill rolled his eye as Dipper quickly went to grab a tissue and handed it to him. Bill reluctantly took it, wiped the blood from his lip and chin, and crumpled up the tissue. He held it in his hand and began to stare off. Dipper cautiously sat on the opposite side of Mabel’s bed and stared at him.

“Why did you do that?” Dipper questioned, gesturing towards his hand.

Bill hesitantly looked down at his knuckles and then gave a small shrug. “I was mad.”

Dipper frowned.  _ Someone needs to learn how to properly cope with their emotions.  _

“When is Shooting Star going to be home?” the blonde then murmured.

Dipper sighed. “Not anytime tonight. She’ll probably come back tomorrow afternoon… maybe later. You just have me for now.”

Bill didn’t say anything.

“What happened between you and Ford?” he hesitantly asked.

Bill crossed his arms and still refused to even look at Dipper.

Dipper already felt frustration bubbling in him. He didn’t understand Bill favored Mabel over him. She was able to handle him so well and actually get him to talk, but it was only because Bill  _ liked _ her. Dipper couldn’t help it that Bill didn’t like him!

Then, a thought floated into Dipper’s head. Bill probably liked Mabel more because she was much more  _ patient _ and _ understanding  _ with him than anyone else was. Even though Bill said awful things and was  _ so _ persistent on being independent and hating everyone and everything, she  _ always  _ kept her optimism and friendliness with him. She let him take his time in warming up to her, and even when he would be mean, she would just smile and say something nice right back. If he ever did something  _ really _ bad, she would just acknowledge it and give him the most minor of scoldings.

Even though all Dipper wanted to do was get mad at Bill, he needed to do the opposite.

“Bill, listen.” Dipper softened his voice. “I know I’m not my sister and that you don’t really like me, but I’m here if you need to talk about anything. If you need someone to talk to, you’re going to have to wait a while, but I’m here for you now. It’s okay. I’m not going to tell Ford anything you tell me.”

There was a long pause before Bill let out a sharp exhale. He leaned his head back and ran his unwounded hand through his hair.

“Sixer and I were arguing and it got  _ way _ too personal  _ way _ too fast,” Bill finally said. “He was talking about things he knows  _ nothing _ about and has  _ no place _ in talking about… so I punched him in the face.”

_ Of course! _ Dipper wanted to exclaim.  _ Because that’s something  _ totally  _ reasonable to do! _

“And then he punched me back and I shoved him and then he pinned me up against the wall,” Bill continued. He finally looked at Dipper. “And then that’s when you came in.”

“What did Ford say that made you upset?”

Bill’s eye narrowed. “Pine Tree, if it’s none of Sixer’s business then it’s  _ definitely _ none of your business.”

_ Fuck you, too. _

“Right.” Dipper inhaled. “Sorry.”

Bill then sighed and rolled onto his side. Dipper stared at him for a while. He decided that he probably wasn’t going to get anything else out of Bill and should leave him be before he got angry.

“You can sleep up here tonight,” Dipper offered. Bill looked up at Dipper, surprised. “Don’t worry about Ford or anything like that. Just… try to relax and get some rest, okay? If you need anything, I’m here for you.”

That seemed to calm down Bill a lot. His gaze softened as he quietly replied, “Thanks, kid.”

Dipper let out a small smile, though it was pretty forced. “You’re welcome.”

Bill turned his head away again, presumably to sleep. Dipper stood up and walked back over to his own bed. His breath hitched as he saw his phone. He had completely forgotten about Gabe.

“Shit,” he muttered to himself as he picked up his phone and left the room.

He immediately called Gabe back and began to nervously pace in front of his bedroom door as he waited for him to pick up.

“Dipper? Are you okay?”

The concern is Gabe’s voice made Dipper feel a little embarrassed.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” he quickly replied. “I’m alright. Everything’s… okay. I guess Bill and Ford got into an argument and it got physical. No one’s really hurt, though. Bill’s just a little banged up and grumpy.”

Gabe chuckled. “That’s nothing new.”

“You’re right.” Dipper smiled. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner… and that I just hung up on you in general.”

“No, don’t worry about it!” Gabe reassured him. “There was an emergency that you needed to take care of. I totally get that. Don’t apologize for anything.”

Dipper rested up against the wall and smiled even wider. He just loved Gabe’s voice and kindness so much.

“You know, I really admire how selfless you are,” Gabe suddenly said.

Dipper gaped for a moment before managing to respond. “What?”

“You heard me!” Gabe snickered. “You always put your family before yourself and what you want and need. I’ve heard so many stories from Mabel about times the stuff you’ve done for her and the rest of your family… it’s really sweet. You’re an amazing person, Dipper Pines.”

“Gabe, that’s so nice of you to say,” Dipper murmured. His voice was weak. He didn’t know what to say after getting such a nice compliment.  “T-thank you.”

“I just wanted to make sure you know how great you are.”

Dipper smiled and couldn’t help but let out a light laugh. There was a small moment of silence.

“Well, it’s getting kinda late,” Dipper reluctantly said. “I need to go to bed… and make sure Bill’s still doing okay.”

“I probably need to go to bed, too.” He guessed by the way Gabe spoke that he was smiling. “You get some rest, alright? You deserve it.”

“Thank you.” Dipper snickered. “I will.”

Gabe seemed to hesitate for a moment before replying, “And, Dipper?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Dipper felt his heart almost beat out of his chest. His voice shook with excitement as he replied, “I love you, too, Gabe.”

“Goodnight.” Gabe was smiling. Dipper knew for  _ sure _ this time.

Dipper couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Goodnight!” 

He noticed his hands were a little shaky as he hung up. God, had Gabe really said that to him? Out of anything he could’ve said, he decided to say  _ that  _ to  _ him _ ? Dipper could’ve sworn he was dreaming.

As Dipper walked back into his room, his gaze fell onto Bill. The blonde has his back towards him and looked like he was asleep, or almost asleep. Dipper’s euphoria faded as he remembered the situation with the former dream demon again. 

Now Dipper kind of wished he was dreaming.


	15. Chapter 15

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty!”

Bill jolted awake as he heard Mabel’s voice. His head shot up to see the brunette happily standing above him with his breakfast. He sighed and relaxed a bit.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” She giggled nonetheless. “Happy Halloween, by the way!”  
“It’s already Halloween?” Bill murmured. He sat up and stretched his arms. “Yeesh, it seems like only yesterday you started planning for it.”

“ _ Well _ , I’ve actually been planning for  _ weeks _ now,” she said with a smirk before kneeling down in front of him. “I asked Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford if you could hang out with me during our Halloween party and they said you could, but I wanted to make sure you wanted to go. You don’t have to if you don’t want to!”

Bill paused and thought for a moment. He could either stay downstairs and do nothing all night, or stay upstairs and, at the very least, get to eat some sweets. He’d have to hang out with a bunch of other people, but Bill decided that the pros outweighed the cons in this situation.

“I’ll give it a shot,” Bill finally answered and shrugged.

She lit up. “Great! You’re gonna have so much fun, Bill! I can’t wait!”

“Mabel, c’mon!” Pine Tree’s voice suddenly called out from the staircase. “Grunkle Stan’s gonna make you walk to school if you don’t get up here soon!”

The brunette panicked for a moment before setting down the plate she had been holding and quickly exclaiming, “Okay, here’s your breakfast, Bill! I’ll see you after school, I love you, bye-  _ I’m coming, Dipper! _ ”

Bill couldn’t help but laugh a little as she scrambled up and out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. He had never seen that kid so frantic before.

Bill happily ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth, and then decided to go back to sleep. He covered himself back up with his blanket and used one of his arms as a pillow. He fortunately drifted off to sleep rather quickly.

When he woke up, Bill found that he was hungry again. He thought that was strange because his breakfast normally held him over till the kids got done with school… but maybe his stomach was just being fussy today. Human bodies were weird after all.

Bill grew more worried as time passed. The more and more hungry he got, the more and more he realized that the kids were really, _ really _ late.

“Shooting Star is probably just busy getting ready for the party,” he muttered to himself. “It’s fine.”

Eventually, Bill got thirsty enough to drink out of the sink. He hadn’t had to do that in quite a while and it brought back some not-so-great memories of when he first arrived.

Unfortunately, even more time passed. Bill tried to distract himself with sleep but was never able to fall asleep for longer than a few minutes. He played with the sink and toilet, he investigated every corner of the room, becoming familiar with every crack and imperfection on the walls and floor, and folded his blanket in at least a hundred different ways.

Way, way,  _ way _ , too much time passed. Hunger clawed at Bill’s throat and stomach and there was nothing he could do about it. Something was  _ really _ wrong.

Bill flinched as he recognized the sounds of someone unlocking his door. He whirled around and jumped up. He felt relief rush through him… but as the door opened, he realized he was also  _ furious _ .

Shooting Star and Pine Tree were standing there. Before they could do or say anything Bill shrieked, “What the  _ fuck _ ?!”

Bill bursted into a rant that mostly consisted of frustrated gibberish. He was too angry, too stressed, and too hungry to focus on forming words. His stupid human mouth was already hard to control when he was calm.

“Dude, shut  _ up _ ! Jesus Christ!” Pine Tree’s voice shouted over his own, so Bill reluctantly let himself trail off. His chest was heaving and he was practically shaking with anger.

Bill stumbled back a bit as Shooting Star hugged him. “We’re  _ so _ sorry, Bill. We didn’t mean to leave you alone down here for so long. I feel so bad!”

“You should!” Bill snorted as he pried her off of him. “What the hell is going on, anyways?”

Pine Tree crossed his arms and calmly said, “Melody had her baby.”

Bill hesitated. “What?”

“Yeah! Melody went into labour when we got home from school on Halloween,” Shooting Star explained. “We got so caught up in the baby being born that we just… totally forgot about you… for a few days.”

“ _ Thanks _ .” Bill frowned.

“A baby was being  _ born _ . That’s pretty important,” Pine Tree argued.

“A baby gets born and I starve to death,” Bill growled.

He smirked. “Hey, it evens out.”

Bill opened his mouth to protest, but Shooting Star interrupted him. “Let’s go upstairs so you can eat, okay? We brought you home some leftovers from Greasy’s!”

He wanted to fight with Pine Tree more, but his stomach was begging him to let it go and take the offer of food. Bill hesitated but then eagerly nodded. He followed the kids upstairs to the kitchen.

Ice-Bag and Sixer were unfortunately also there, but Bill couldn’t care less. He was more focused on the paper bag on the table. He rushed over to the table, sat down, opened the bag, and start eating a waffle that was inside it.

“Slow down,” Sixer warned. “You’re going to make yourself sick if you eat that fast.”

Bill sighed. He unfortunately knew that Sixer was right. He reluctantly slowed down and avoided eye contact with him.

“Stan should be home with Soos and Melody soon,” Ice-Bag happily informed the twins.

“I can’t wait to meet the baby!” Mabel chirped. “ _ And _ finally learn his name!”

“I wonder why they’ve been keeping it a secret,” Sixer commented with a small smile. He then took a seat next to Bill, who promptly snarled at him and scooted his chair farther away. Sixer rolled his eyes.

Bill continued to focus on eating while the Pines rambled on about the baby. He didn’t care to listen. He was just so relieved to finally have something in his stomach.

After a couple more minutes of eating, Bill finally ran out of food in the bag. He looked inside and even tried dumping it out just to double check if there was anything left. To his disappointment, there wasn’t.

“Sorry, Bill, but you’ll have to wait to eat more till later,” Pine Tree told him. “You should probably take a break anyways. We don’t want you getting sick.”  
Bill pouted. “I already feel sick from not eating for so long.”

“Well, you’ll feel even worse if you throw up everything you just ate,” Sixer retorted. “Have a little patience. You can eat dinner with the rest of us in a few hours.”

“A few hours,” Bill angrily repeated under his breath.

Before Sixer could start yelling at him, the others and himself became distracted as they heard the door in the foyer open. Mabel immediately sprang to her feet to run towards the door while everyone else followed behind her. Bill stayed put, not knowing exactly what to do.

All of their excitedness blurred into a loud cacophony of voices. Bill grumbled and laid his head down on the table. It was just a  _ baby _ . He didn’t see the big deal over it. It was just a small human. What’s so important, or even exciting, about that?

The noise died down a bit just in time for Bill to hear Soos’ voice. “Do you want to know what his name is?”

“Of course we do!” Mabel exclaimed. She couldn’t even hold still she was so happy.

Melody laughed a bit before finally saying, “Stanley Ramirez. Lee for short.”

There was a small moment of silence.

“Oh my God. You two didn’t have to…” Fez’s voice was breaking.

“Stanley, are you crying?” Sixer said with a chuckle.

“I am, and I’m man enough to admit that!” he exclaimed.

Everyone started talking again, so Bill couldn’t really hear what they were saying. He rested his head back down again and closed his eye. Within just a few minutes, he started to drift off to sleep.

“Hey, Bill!”

Mabel’s voice scared Bill awake. His breath hitched and he let out a small yelp. He looked up to see that Mabel was standing in the doorway to the kitchen now.

“Why do you always do that?” Bill whimpered as he calmed down.

She giggled. “Sorry. I just wanted you to come see Lee before Soos and Melody head home.”

Bill would’ve just said no, but he was in no mood to argue. He got up and walked over to Mabel. Question Mark and Melody were standing behind her, along with the others. Bill crossed his arms as he stepped a little closer to look at the baby Melody was holding.

Bill expected to feel hatred for the little flesh-puppet when he looked at it, but to his surprise, he didn’t. Lee was so,  _ so _ small. He looked so soft and oddly innocent. Bill expected to feel something negative for him,  _ anything _ , but he really, truly didn’t. If anything, he kind of thought that Lee was a little cute.

“He’s so… tiny,” Bill murmured. That made Mabel laugh.

“All babies are,” Melody told him with a smile. “He’ll be pretty small for a while.”

“Isn’t he cute?” Mabel chirped. She affectionately grabbed Bill’s arm. “I love him so much already!”

Bill frowned and muttered, “I just don’t see the point.”

“The point in what?” she questioned.

“ _ Kids _ . Having them and everything,” Bill carelessly explained. “I mean, you’re just bringing another life into a world where they’re gonna suffer and eventually die. There’s no point in it, except for, you know, the animalistic need to continue your bloodline.”

“ _ Bill _ !” Sixer scoldingly exclaimed.

“It’s a genuine question!” he retorted.

There was a moment of hesitation before Soos said something. “Well, having kids is fun! It’s a lot of work, but when you’re raising them with someone you love, it can be really fun.”

“Plus, I think you’re just looking at it the wrong way,” Melody then added. Bill narrowed his eyes. “For most of us, life isn’t about the bad things; it’s about the  _ good _ things. We’re not bringing another life into the world because we want it to suffer; we’re bringing another life into the world because we want someone else to experience all the wonderful things it has to offer. Life is full of amazing, beautiful things, and Soos and I have decided we want to share it with someone… and that someone is going to be Lee.”

Question Mark and Melody then affectionately gazed down at their baby again. Bill opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t find anything to say.

“Huh,” he eventually muttered. 

Mabel snickered again and hugged onto his arm tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all!!! happy halloween ;w;  
> i'd just like to take a sec to thank everyone for all your support!! it means more to me than you guys could ever imagine!! <33


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for transphobia, homophobia, transphobic and homophobic slurs, and misgendering!

“Dipper!”

Stan’s voice made Dipper flinch a bit. He left his spot on the couch to go meet Stan in the foyer. Dipper sighed as he saw that Stan was holding an empty trash bag. 

“Go take out the trash from the gift shop,” he simply said, shoving the bag into his arms.

“Grunkle Stan, today’s supposed to be my day off from chores,” Dipper protested.

Stan scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, well, Soos and Melody are a little caught up with being parents now, so everyone’s gonna have to pitch in a little more than usual.”

Dipper’s gaze shifted to the kitchen where Mabel and Bill were. She was chatting with him and while his recently painted nails were drying. He frowned.

_ I think when you say everyone, you mean  _ me _ , _ his thoughts muttered.

“Kid, it’s not like I’m asking you to go clean up vomit or something,” Stan suddenly said. “It’s just taking out the trash. It won’t take that long.”

Dipper hesitated for a moment before reluctantly murmuring, “Okay. Fine.”

The brunette made his way to gift shop. It was a little more crowded than usual to Dipper’s surprise. He was glad that they were getting business, but he hated being around so many people… there were too many eyes on him.

He dumped out the trash in the two trash cans that were in the shop. He said hello to Wendy as he passed by her on his way to go outside. Dipper headed to the back of the shack where their trash bin was. Dipper opened it and threw the bag of trash inside.

Just as he was about to turn around, Dipper suddenly heard something behind him. He reluctantly looked over his shoulder and felt his gut twist. 

There were two boys there; one of them was a brunette and the other was a dirty blonde. They both looked a older than Dipper, but not by a lot, maybe a year or two. They were both taller than him by a few inches and better-built. They definitely weren’t from around here, and were probably tourists… but Dipper had feeling they weren’t asking any questions about the Mystery Shack.

“Can I help you?” Dipper sharply asked as he turned around. He mustered up his most confident face and voice, but judging by the looks on the boys’ faces, that wasn’t going to intimidate them.

“Yeah, actually,” the blonde replied. He stepped closer. “We just had a few questions for you.”

Dipper held his ground. “Any questions can be directed to our staff, and I’m not on duty. You’ll have to find someone else.”

He tried to walk past the blonde, but the boy shoved him back, nearly knocking Dipper completely over. He stumbled back and stared at them with wide eyes.

“I think you misunderstood us.” The brunette snickered. “We have questions about  _ you _ , tranny. Not your dumb fucking tourist trap.”

Dipper’s throat clenched. Oh,  _ God _ , this couldn’t be happening.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he managed to choke out. His once clear and serious voice was faltering. 

“Oh, isn’t  _ she _ cute?” the blonde exclaimed, elbowing his friend. “Thinking she’s fooling people into believing she’s a boy! Geez, what kind of moron would believe that?”

“I  _ am _ a boy, dickhead,” Dipper snapped. 

“Really?” The brunette tilted his head. “I think whatever is in your pants would _ love  _ to disagree.”

Dipper gritted his teeth and tried to shove them out of the way again, but they shoved right back. Dipper felt frustration and fear boil inside him. He tried to punch the brunette, but he easily caught Dipper’s wrist. He twisted Dipper’s arm and threw him onto the ground.

The brunette laughed. “God, she’s a feisty little thing!”

Dipper scrambled to get up, but the blonde suddenly placed his foot on his chest. Dipper began to panic.

“So, you really think you could trick anyone into thinking you’re a boy, huh?” he growled. “Wake the fuck up. Anyone could see that you’re a tranny from a mile away. Your girly legs and voice give you away! No one is  _ ever _ going to believe you. You’re a girl and that’s all you’ll  _ ever _ be.”

Dipper wanted to fight back, either physically or verbally, but he couldn’t. He was too paralyzed with fear and dread. What were these boys going to do to him? Were they going to hurt him? Were they going to  _ kill _ him?

…Did he really not pass that well?

“What the hell is going on?”

The two boys froze as a voice behind them spoke. At first, Dipper was relieved that someone was coming to his rescue… but as he managed to look up and see who it was, he knew he was fucked. It was  _ Bill _ .

“None of your business, freak,” the brunette snapped. “Fuck off.”

“I think this is entirely my business,” Bill retorted. He walked closer to them.

The blonde snorted. “What? Is one-eye here gonna be tranny’s little knight in shining armor?”

The brunette bursted out laughing. “You hear that, princess? Prince Charming is here to save you!”

“If this is your girlfriend, dude, you got a shitty taste in girls,” the blonde said with a grin. “ _Or_ you’re a faggot who can’t tell a dick from a pussy. I’m not sure which one’s worse.”  
Bill hesitated for a moment as he looked at one boy and then the other. Dipper could hear his heart pounding in his ears. Bill was going to stand there and watch Dipper get the shit beaten out of him… or participate in it. Either way, he was going to _die_. 

All of a sudden, Bill punched the blonde in the face, kneed him in the stomach, and threw him onto the ground next to Dipper.

Dipper fortunately managed to jump up to his feet immediately. He stood by Bill’s side as Bill slammed his foot onto the the boy’s torso, which made him let out a horrible wheeze. Bill then turned his head towards the brunette, who looked terrified now.

“If you two don’t fuck off right this very minute, I swear I will beat the shit out of both of you until you’re barely breathing,” Bill hissed out. “Don’t make me make an example of your friend here.”

Bill pressed his foot down even harder, earning another dreadful sound from the blonde. The brunette hesitated for a second. He seemed to be looking Bill up and down. Bill was not as well-built as he or his friend was, but he was taller and clearly more aggressive. 

After another couple of seconds, Bill let the blonde up. The brunette quickly scrambled to his friend and helped him stand up.

“Dude, let’s just get the fuck out of here,” the brunette murmured. “It’s not fucking worth it.”

The blonde muttered something out, but his friend was already running off and dragging him along. Bill sternly watched them until they disappeared around the corner of the shack.

Dipper waited a moment before finally letting out a shaky sigh and relaxed. He sank down to his feet and pulled off his hat. He ran his hands through his hair as he tried to steady his breathing.

“You alright, kid?” Bill finally asked.

Dipper shook his head. 

He looked up as he heard Bill sigh to see him kneeling down to sit next to him. They sat there for a long while, not saying a word.

“Why are you outside?” Dipper hesitantly asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Shooting Star told me I should come see if you needed help,” he explained and shrugged. “Looks like you did.”

Dipper scoffed. “Why’d you help me anyways? I would think you’d get your kicks out of me being apart of a hate crime.”

“Why would I?” Bill frowned.

“Why  _ wouldn’t _ you?” Dipper retorted.

“I don’t have a problem with trans people, if that’s what you’re implying,” Bill replied. He was shockingly calm. “It takes a special kind of stupid to be that ignorant. I’m kinda offended that you would think I am.”

Dipper crossed his arms. “Still doesn’t explain why you helped me.”

Bill shrugged again. “Well… I did kind of owe you for saving my ass from Sixer. Now we’re even.”

“Of course,” Dipper whispered to himself. Bill rolled his eye.

“What’s wrong?” Bill then asked. He sounded more irritated than concerned. “Those two brats are gone, and it’s not like they hurt you, so why are you so upset?”

Dipper tugged at the fabric of the sleeves of his jacket. He didn’t want to explain any of this to Bill, but he was so upset that he knew that he needed to get it off his chest right now.

“I just can’t believe that happened,” he finally said. “I haven’t had people harass me for being trans in a long time. I didn’t expect that to happen here or now. I-I’m even on testosterone now! I just… this shouldn’t have happened.”

Bill raised an eyebrow. “I get the being on hormones thing, but what does being here have anything to do with you escaping from transphobic assholes?”

Dipper hesitated for a second. He then sighed. “Has Mabel told you why we moved here?”

Bill shook his head.

“Well, it has to do with be being trans,” Dipper reluctantly explained “My parents aren’t accepting of me. They never have been and probably never will. After I came back from Gravity Falls, I was way more confident in my gender than ever and started rebelling more. They tried everything in their power to make me be a girl, but I always fought back... it eventually just got too frustrating for them, I guess.”

Dipper sighed and stared at the ground. He twiddled his thumbs together as he continued. “They kicked me out, and eventually kicked Mabel out too once she fought them enough about it. Grunkle Stan got custody of us, fortunately, so that’s why he and Grunkle Ford had to come back to Gravity Falls. So, hopefully, we’ll never have to deal with our transphobic parents ever again… I guess I just kind of forgot that there are other transphobes than just my parents, though.”

Bill scoffed and shook his head.

“Pine Tree, the unfortunate truth is that there are _ always _ going to be people that don’t believe you, whether that be about you being a boy or otherwise,” he told him. “You just have to figure out ways of coping with it and  _ ignoring _ it.”

Dipper noticed that Bill sounded like he was talking from experience.

“I’m not good with this kind of stuff,” Bill then muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Would… a hug make you feel better enough till your family can help with you with this instead?”

Even though Bill sounded completely insincere, Dipper couldn’t help but nod. Bill leaned towards him and pulled him into a hug. To Dipper’s surprise, Bill was a pretty good hugger. He probably learned from Mabel, who was the master of good hugs. Dipper felt surprisingly comforted and… safe.

“Thanks, Bill,” he then said before he pulled away. “But, um, for now, can we just keep this whole situation between you and me?”

Bill shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

“Let’s go back inside before anyone can ask any questions,” Dipper said as he stood up. “ _ Especially _   Mabel.”

The blonde chuckled. “Sounds good to me”

Bill then stood up and followed Dipper back inside.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for suicidal thoughts

Bill squinted when he woke up. He felt extremely confused as he didn’t see the familiar surroundings of the bathroom that he normally saw when he woke up. Instead, he saw the TV in front of him, making it clear to him that he was in the living room. He also noticed that he wasn’t sleeping on his arms, but something else… well,  _ someone _ else. His head was in Pine Tree’s lap. He let out an annoyed sigh.

It took Bill a moment to realize what was happening, but he very quickly remembered. The twins and himself had been watching television together that evening… and they must have all fallen asleep. Both of the twins were still asleep and sitting up straight. He was the only one who had slumped over while sleeping… great.

Bill was about to sit up, but he suddenly noticed there was something prodding him under his neck. There was something in the front pocket of Pine Tree’s jeans. As Bill sat up completely, he couldn’t help but be a little curious as he examined the kid’s pocket. He carefully reached inside it and was surprised to pull out a pocket knife. Bill switched it open to examine the blade. Bill vaguely remembered someone mentioning that Pine Tree had gotten a pocket knife from Stan for his birthday.

Bill very gently poked the sharpest part of the blade, careful to not hurt himself. He shivered as he remembered how Tad had used a blade to gouge out his eye. He shook those thoughts out of his head and pressed his fingertips against the bandages covering his wound.

Bill gazed down at the blade again and then back up at Pine Tree, then his sister, and then back down to the knife. He blinked and felt his heart skip a beat as he realized the opportunity he had.

A sharp feeling of guilt stabbed him as he pondered the thought of murdering Shooting Star. She had been so nice and selfless to him. She would be horrified to see him murdering her brother, and then her… but then again, she, and her family were responsible for him being like this.

Bill  _ hated _ being human. He despised every single aspect of it and every single consequence it had… and it was all the Pines’ fault! How could he  _ not  _ want to murder them? He had pondered about it a lot before, but now that he had an opportunity… 

Bill’s imagination began to run wild.

He would probably have to kill Pine Tree first. He would put up much more of a fight than his sister, so the quicker he could get him out of the way, the better. Shooting Star would probably wake up and try to talk him down, just like she had when they had first brought him home, which would make her an easy victim. Plus, she was smaller and weaker than him. He would have no probably overpowering her if she decided to fight back.

_ What would you do then? _

That thought made Bill’s imagination stop dead in its tracks. What  _ would  _ he do then?

He couldn’t run out of the shack. Fez and Sixer, or anyone else who was still in the house, would have heard him by then, as Shooting Star seemed like she would be a screamer. Fighting either of the older men off wasn’t an option either, because even with a weapon, Bill was much smaller and weaker than his opponents. Maybe he could fend off Question Mark, Ice-Bag, or Melody, but either way, he would have to come face to face with Fez and Sixer at some point. They would always come to the others’ rescue. 

Even if by some miracle he managed to either escape before anyone could catch him, or kill or fight off any of the others and escape, where would he go? He could just spend a little while roaming around in the woods while he plotted to kill off the rest of the Pines. He knew that would be difficult, but maybe he could pull something off… but the same question rang in his head:  _ what would you do then? _

Before any of this, Bill knew exactly what he would after getting his revenge on someone who screwed him over: go try to find another sucker to build a portal for him and bring about Weirdmaggedon… but that didn’t matter anymore. He was  _ human _ now.

Sure, he had the physical form he always wanted, but he didn’t have any of his powers. Even if he managed to start Weirdmaggedon again, and those chances were  _ incredibly _ slim, it would do nothing for him. He was useless in this form, and he knew that there was  _ no way _ he could get his magic back or even his old form.

Killing the twins, or any of the Pines wouldn’t matter. He had no purpose anymore.

Bill shoulder’s sunk down at that realization. He let out a shaky sigh and screwed his eye shut. He wanted to punch something as he felt a lump in his throat. Why was this stupid meat-puppet so vulnerable to emotions?

Bill opened his eye again as he remembered his stupid body. It was all  _ it’s _ fault. He was trapped inside it. It was so restricting and disgusting and needy. He was so sick of it. He hated it. He hated _ everything about this _ -

The phrase “no purpose” rang in his head over and over again.

Bill looked down at the blade again… and then at himself.

“Bill?”

The blonde whirled around to see Fez standing in the entryway. His breath hitched and his heart began to beat faster.

“What are you doing?” Fez demanded, stepping closer. 

Bill stammered over his words. He dropped the knife on the ground and scrambled to kick it away from himself.

Fez quickly grabbed the pocket knife and switched the blade back in. He shoved it in his pants pocket and then looked back at Bill. He seemed furious at first, but after he noticed Bill’s panic and terrified expression, he let down his guard a bit.

“Let’s… take you downstairs,” he said.

Bill eagerly nodded and stood up, careful to not disturb the twins. Fez led him out to the gift shop and to the vending machine.

“Do you want to explain yourself?” he then asked as he revealed the stairway.

Bill hesitated for a moment. He bit at his lip as he tried to come up with a reply. “It’s complicated.”

“Killing my niece and nephew kind of complicated?” Fez growled as he started walking down the stairs.

“No,” Bill sharply replied and followed him. “Different kind of complicated.”

Fez frowned. “It better be.”

Bill felt a nauseous feeling run through him all of a sudden. He _was_ just about to kill those kids. He was _moments_ away from doing so. Now that he was thinking about, he felt awful. Bill didn’t want to admit it, but he didn’t want to kill those kids. Maybe the rest of their family, but not them. They were _nice_ to him. They fed him, took care of him, and sometimes even stood up for him. All he wanted to do was hate them, he _really_ did, but he just couldn’t. He really, really couldn’t. He didn’t _completely_ like them, but he definitely didn’t _hate_ them.

Bill pushed aside his thoughts and focused more on Stan who was now unlocking the bathroom door for him. He opened it and motioned for him to go in. Bill stepped past Stan and headed in. He looked back at the older man, waiting for him to say something.

“I won’t tell the kids about this. I don’t want to freak them out,” he simply told him. “But that doesn’t mean that this didn’t happen, and that I didn’t see it. You’ve heard it from my brother and now you’re going to hear it from me: don’t even _ think _ about laying a finger on those kids. You’ll regret it if you do.”

Bill knew that Stan wouldn’t trust him and nothing he would say could make him trust him. He decided to keep his words minimal and clear. “I understand. I’m not going to hurt them.”

Stan stared at the blonde for a couple of more seconds before sighing and closing the door.

Bill shook his head and sank down to his feet. He glanced over at the blue blanket Shooting Star had gave him. He normally would’ve wrapped himself up in it and gone to bed, but all that would’ve done was remind him of the kids. It made him sick. The guilt of what he had almost just done was beginning to eat at him more and more… and the thought of image of the knife and his own body became more and more appealing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apologies for the wait on a new update! been super busy lately but i think that has cleared up a bit for now!! hopefully,,,,,,,


	18. Chapter 18

_ Knock, knock, knock! _

Dipper was about to tell whoever was at the door to come in, but Mabel cheerfully beat him to it. “Come in!”

Stan opened the door to reveal himself as well as Ford who was standing next to them. Dipper greeted them with a smile and sat up. “Hey! What’s up?”

“We’re headed to the store. We wanted to see if you two wanted to come with,” Stan told him.

“Sure,” Dipper replied and shrugged. “I’ve got nothing better to do.”

As Dipper stood up, he looked over at Mabel who was sitting in her bed with Bill. Dipper had almost forgotten Bill had been in there with them; he had been pretty quiet the whole time while watching videos on Mabel’s phone with her. Dipper tilted his head and asked her, “Are you just going to stay here with Bill?”

“Could… Bill come with us?” she hesitantly asked, looking towards her uncles. “He’d promise to be on his best behavior! Right, Bill?”

Bill met her gaze and then shrugged. 

Stan glanced at his brother, letting him know that the decision was up to him. Ford thought for a second before sighing and saying, “Fine, but if he does anything, the repercussions will be drastic. Am I clear, Bill?”

“ _ Crystal _ clear,” Bill murmured, rolling his eye. 

Mabel immediately lit up and jumped to her feet. “Thank you!”

Dipper stood up and watched as Mabel got up and eagerly grabbed a pair of shoes for Bill. Dipper walked over to his uncles and gave them an unsure expression. They seemed to share his exact feelings. 

“Okay, we’re ready!” Mabel exclaimed. She was locking arms with Bill who looked very displeased.

Stan nodded and turned to leave the doorway. “Alright then. Let’s go.”

The group headed down the stairs and then outside. Dipper watched as Bill’s uninterested expression changed into an uncomfortable one as they walked off the porch. He raised a confused eyebrow at the blonde.

“It’s… cold,” Bill commented. He pressed his arms closer to himself. 

“Yeah, it is!” Mabel giggled. “And it’s only going to get colder for a while. We might even get some snow soon!”

“I’m just… not used to being cold.” Bill shook his head and shivered. “It feels weird. I don’t like it.”

“You’ll warm up when we get in the car,” Dipper reassured him. “You can even sit in between me and Mabel. That’s the warmest spot.”

As expected, Bill didn’t reply and just stared ahead of himself. Dipper ignored that, though.

The car ride to the store ended up just being like any other one that Dipper had taken with his family: Stan turned on the radio, Mabel loudly sang along to the songs she knew (which conveniently happened to be most of them), and Dipper meekly hummed along to the few that he knew. The only difference this time was that Bill was sat in the seat between where Mabel and Dipper sat. He kept quiet the entire time to Dipper’s surprise. He didn’t even complain about Mabel singing.

They eventually made it to the store and found a parking space right away.

Right before Ford stepped out of the car, he turned around to face Dipper, Mabel, and Bill. “Mabel, you’re in charge of Bill. Don’t let him wander off… and, Bill-”

“Be on my best behavior,” Bill interrupted. His eye narrowed. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. You made it clear the first hundred times.”

Ford frowned. “I mean it.”

Bill snorted as Ford left the car. Dipper felt his stomach churn with unease at the tension between Bill and Stanford. He didn’t want to imagine when that tension would eventually lead to some kind of physical altercation…  _ again _ .

Dipper snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Bill leaving the car with Mabel. He followed their lead and left the car, and began to follow his family into the store. Mabel happily skipped along behind her uncles while holding Bill’s hand, who, fortunately, didn’t seem to mind.

They were following around Stan and Ford a little while. Dipper lingered near Mabel and Bill, keeping a close eye on the former dream demon just to make sure he wasn’t up to anything. Fortunately, he seemed fine and gave minimal responses to the silly comments Mabel said about the things they were looking at.

“Hey, kids,” Stan suddenly said after they had just finished getting paper towels. “Why don’t you go get some cereal and chips? If we split up, it’ll take less time and that means we can get out of here sooner.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dipper said with a smile. “We’ll meet you at the checkout when we’re done.”

Stan gave him a nod of acknowledgement before he and Ford went off down a different aisle. Mabel eagerly lead the way to the aisle they needed to go to get chips.

“Oh, hey!” Mabel excitedly pulled down a box from the shelf. “Chipackerz!”

Bill’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. “What?”

“ _ Chipackerz _ !” she enthusiastically repeated, showing off the box. “The cracker that tastes like a chip!”

“Or they’re chips that just look like crackers,” Bill suggested with a smirk.

Mabel let out a very loud exaggerated, and offended, gasp. “How  _ dare _ you insult Chipackerz! How could you, Bill?!”

That made both Bill and Dipper laugh. Dipper felt a weird surge of hope run through him as he heard Bill actually  _ laughing _ . Most of the time, he would’ve just continued on and said some unnecessarily mean joke or ruin the moment some other way, but this time around, he didn’t. He was actually being decent for once.

Mabel chose to get the Chipackerz and Dipper got another bag of chips that he knew Ford and himself liked. Mabel made Bill carry the items, but he fortunately didn’t seem to mind. He seemed to be in a better mood in general once they had gotten away from Ford and Stan. The three then headed to the next aisle over.

“Yeesh, why do you humans need so many different types of cereal?” Bill murmured as he examined the shelf full of all different kinds of brands.

“Everyone has different tastes in cereal! Personally, I like all of them,” Mabel proudly told him. “Bro-bro, do you wanna choose the cereal?”

Dipper shook his head. “You can get whatever you want. I’m not picky.”

Mabel began to walk up and down the aisle as she looked at each and every brand, trying to make a decision. Dipper watched for a moment but eventually got distracted. He glanced over to see Bill leaning out of the aisle way. Something had clearly caught his attention. Dipper stepped closer to him and began to feel a little worried as he saw how tense Bill was.

“Bill? What’s…”

Dipper’s voice trailed off as he saw what Bill had been staring at.

At first, Dipper wasn’t worried because he saw Ford talking with someone a few aisles away. He just assumed at first that Bill was just watching Ford, something that he did quite often, so he didn’t think it was a big deal… but then he saw who Ford was talking to.

“ _ Tad _ ?” Dipper whispered out. He hadn’t wanted to let that slip out, but he was so shocked that he couldn’t help it.

Dipper flinched when Bill suddenly dropped the items he was holding and stumbled back.

“What’s going on?” Mabel called. Dipper looked over his shoulder to see that she was clearly aware that something was wrong.

Dipper ran through about all of his options before deciding that his top priority was to get Bill out of there. He grabbed the blonde by his arm and frantically told Mabel as he rushed by her, “We need to go outside  _ right now _ .”

She was about to protest, but Dipper was already dragging Bill out of the aisle and to the front of the store. Mabel ran after them and eventually met them outside on the side of the store. Bill’s breathing was already becoming rapid and heavy. His hands were curled up into tight fists that made his knuckles turn white. Dipper could practically feel the fury radiating off of him. It made Dipper’s entire body fill with anxiety.

“What the hell is going on?” Mabel exclaimed once she reached the two boys.

“Bill and I saw Ford talking to Tad,” he quickly and quietly explained.

Her brown eyes widened. “Wait,  _ Tad? _ ” 

“Yes, fucking Tad!” Bill shouted, making both Dipper and Mabel flinch. He began to pace back and forth in front of the twins. “Don’t act so fucking surprised that those two would be in cahoots! I don’t even know why _ I’m _ so surprised! I should’ve seen this coming!” 

“Bill, you don’t know that,” Dipper tried to calmly tell him. “For all you know, Ford could be standing up for you.”

Bill whipped around to get in Dipper’s face. “Oh, _ bullshit _ ! He’s wanted me dead since the day I came back! If anything, he’s shaming Tad for not immediately  _ killing me _ !”

Dipper deeply frowned and stepped back to get away from Bill.

“That’s not true,” Mabel gently reassured him. “Ford wasn’t eager to take  _ care _ of you, but he’s not  _ that  _ heartless.”

Bill snorted. “You’re saying that from a  _ very _ biased perspective. He wants me  _ dead _ and I know it. He’s probably plotting with Tad right now how to get rid of me!”

Bill paused for a second. He let out an angry shriek before throwing his hands up and exclaiming, “That  _ motherfucker _ ! I’m going to kill  _ him _ before he fucking kills  _ me _ ! I’m not gonna let that piece of shit  _ or   _ his new partner-in-crime lay a fucking finger on me!”

“Bill, calm down!” Mabel stepped closer towards him. For a split moment, Dipper was about to spring forward to protect his sister because it looked like Bill was ready to murder her on the spot… but he didn’t do anything. Instead, he froze and slightly relaxed his stance. Mabel gave him a small smile. “Just breathe, okay? You’re not thinking straight right now. You just need to calm down a little, that’s all.”

Bill seemed to take a little bit of her advice and tried to take a deep breath, but it was ragged. He sighed and then let out a light, broken chuckle. He stepped back and leaned against the wall of the store. He covered his face with arms and mumbled, “You’re right. I  _ am _ thinking about this wrong. Why the hell do I care if I’m alive or not?”

Dipper felt his heart skip a beat. That was… not what he had expected Bill to say.

“I should just go ahead and let them kill me,” he spat. Bill then slumped down to the ground. “Death sounds like _ blissful _ compared to another day in this useless, pathetic meat sack. What’s even the point anymore?”

Dipper and Mabel just stared at Bill for a minute or two, just taking what he said in.

Bill’s breathing suddenly became even more disjointed than before. Dipper felt a horrible feeling wash over him as he recognized the symptoms Bill was showing; it looked like he was having a panic attack. He never thought that out of anyone _ Bill Cipher  _ would have a panic attack, but the former demon seemed to be full of all kinds of surprises nowadays.

Dipper hesitantly stepped forward and kneeled down next to Bill. “Hey, just take a deep breath, okay? Hold it for a second or two, and then exhale. Just do that a couple times, alright? It’ll help.”

Bill met his gaze. For a moment, Dipper thought that Bill was about to burst into an angry rant about being told to relax again, but he didn’t. Bill actually did as he had been instructed to do, though reluctantly. He struggled the first few times, but eventually managed to do the breathing exercise well. Once he was a little calmer and breathing easier, Mabel sat down next to him and gave him a tight hug that Bill practically melted into. That was the most eager for physical affection Bill had ever been, but Dipper knew from experience that Mabel’s hugs were very comforting after a panic attack.

“We’re not gonna let anyone hurt you, okay?” she told him in him softest, sweetest voice. She pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “We promise.”

Bill didn’t reply, but Dipper didn’t blame him this time.

“Dipper! Mabel! Where are you kids?”

Stan’s distant call made all three of them jump. Dipper exchanged worried glances with Mabel before they both decided to stand up. Mabel helped Bill up and tightly hugged his right arm as they hurried to the front of the store. Stan was fortunately there with Ford. They were both holding grocery bags and looked frustrated. 

“Where did you three go?” Ford questioned. His voice was stern, but there was still a hint of concern in it.

Mabel opened her mouth to speak, but Dipper quickly interrupted her. “I-I started feeling a little nauseous and needed to get some fresh air. I think I ate something bad at Greasy’s when I went to breakfast with Gabe this morning. I’m feeling a little bit better now.”

Stan hesitated for a moment before saying, “Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, kid, but you should’ve checked in with us. We got worried.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Dipper meekly replied, ducking his head down.

“It’s alright. Just remember next time,” Ford told him with a small smile.

Dipper nodded and felt a wave of relief wash over him as they headed back to the car. He was so glad he was able to lie his way out of that.

Dipper suddenly caught Bill’s gaze for a moment before they got in the car. The blonde gave him a small smile, and there was a glimmer of gratitude in his eye. Dipper smiled back, as if to say “you’re welcome”.

The car ride home was a little more underwhelming than usual. Mabel didn’t passionately sing along to the songs on the radio. She just softly hummed the lyrics instead. Dipper was surprised that Stan didn’t say anything about that, but that was probably for the best.

Dipper kept glancing back at Bill throughout the entire way home. Bill’s gaze was locked onto Ford. This was a different kind of stare than the ones Dipper had seen Bill give Ford before. He was probably scared of Ford now, and for good reason he supposed, but Dipper wasn’t sure if that was for better or for worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i probs shouldn't been posting this yet (bc i dont have any new chapters written) but i live with my regrets ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for minor self-harm

Bill adjusted his hair on last time before deciding that he was satisfied with the way it looked. It had been his first time blow drying and styling his hair by himself, and he had thought he had done a pretty good job.

Bill unplugged the dryer, wrapped the cord around it, and then left the bathroom to go to Shooting Star and Pine Tree’s bedroom. When he walked into the room, he was surprised to find only Pine Tree who was sitting on his bed and screwing around with his tie. Bill sat down the blow dryer on Mabel’s bed and then walked over to Pine Tree.

“Hey, if you tell me where your sister is, I’ll help you with your tie,” he offered with a smirk.

Pine Tree rolled his eyes but still decided to stand up to let Bill tie his tie. “While you were in the shower, Pacifica apparently had some sort of ‘outfit emergency’, so Mabel left to go help her with that. Don’t ask me what the emergency was, or even what an outfit emergency is, because I have no idea.”

“She’s not going to miss dinner, is she?” Bill asked, tilting his head.

“No, she won’t,” Pine Tree reassured him. “She’s been super excited about Thanksgiving for the last couple of weeks, so there’s no  _ way _ she would miss this. She said she’ll meet us there.”

“Good.”

Bill nodded as he finished tying Dipper’s tie. The brunette looked down at it and smiled before thanking him. Looking at Bill seemed to remind him of something. He suddenly rushed over to Mabel’s bed stand, exclaiming, “Oh, by the way…!”

Bill curiously watched as the brunette bounded back over to him holding a small cardboard jewelry box. Pine Tree gestured for him to take it, which Bill eagerly did. He opened it and was a bit confused at what was inside. He set the box down on Pine Tree’s bed and pulled out the item that was in it: a small black, triangle made out of some kind of fabric with a string on it. Bill perked up as he realized it was an eyepatch.

“Mabel overheard me and Ford talking about how you don’t need your bandages anymore and how you needed something to cover your missing eye. She decided to make that for you,” Dipper explained. “She wanted you to be the one to give it to you, but due to her ‘emergency’, she decided to let me give it to you instead.”

Bill ran his thumb over the patch. He then stepped over to stand in front of the mirror that Pine Tree had at the end of his bed. He put on the eyepatch and adjusted it to perfectly cover his missing eye. It felt a little weird, and he was sure it was going to take a little while to get used to, but it fit great and, more importantly, it  _ looked _ great. He smiled.

“Make sure you thank Mabel when you see her, okay?” Pine Tree told him as he walked by. “Let’s go. Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are probably ready by now.”

Bill gave the kid a nod of acknowledgment before following him out of the room and down to the foyer. Fez and Sixer were waiting there as expected. Like Pine Tree, they were also a little more dressed up than usual. That made Bill feel a little underdressed but, number one: he didn’t exactly have a lot of outfits to choose from, and number two: he… didn’t really care about how he would look for this gathering.

“You two ready?” Stan asked as he noticed them.

Bill exchanged glances with Pine Tree and then nodded with him. Stan gave them a smile of acknowledgment before he lead them out of the house and to the car. Bill shivered as the cold November breeze hit his face. It was much colder than the last time he had been outside. Stan had already started the car earlier, so when they got in, it was already warm. Bill was very grateful for that.

As Bill stared out the window of the car, he recalled Mabel telling him how they were having Thanksgiving at Fiddleford’s. She had explained the whole story about how he lived in the Northwest’s mansion now, though Bill hadn’t really cared to pay too close attention to it. The most important thing he remembered was that the house was a bit of long drive away.

Bill spaced out during most of the car ride and only realized they had arrived when the car finally stopped. He looked around at all the other cars parked in front of the house. He wondered who was going to be at this dinner… 

He wondered if Sixer had invited Tad.

“Bill! C’mon, man!”

Pine Tree’s call to him, and the realization that he was the last person in the car, fortunately shoved that thought right out of Bill’s head. He quickly opened his car door and exited the vehicle. He bounded up to Pine Tree and walked along beside him as they headed inside.

Once again, Bill was thankful for the warmth he felt when he stepped inside the house. On the downside, Bill could already hear people loudly chatting and laughing. He held back a sigh. This was going to be a long night.

Fez quickly left to go meet up with Question Mark and Melody who had their baby with them, but Bill became more interested in Sixer. He watched as Ford almost immediately left them to go greet someone. He had the biggest smile on his face and eagerly pulled the person into a tight embrace before kissing them. Bill squinted at the stranger for a moment, trying to figure out who this was, but he eventually realized it was Glasses.

Fiddleford had clearly changed quite a lot since Bill had last seen him. He looked a lot cleaner and more civil, like he had when Bill had first met him all those decades ago. Bill could barely hear him as he spoke to Sixer, but just by that, he could tell that his speech had improved a lot, too.

“Are you just going to hang out with me until Mabel gets here?” Pine Tree suddenly asked, gaining Bill’s attention.

Bill looked at the him and reluctantly answered, “I guess so.”

“Alright,” Pine Tree said with a shrug.

Bill followed after the brunette as he walked to the other side of the large entry room. He was headed towards a small group of people that Bill recognized as Ice-Bag and her group of friends. Bill could hear Ice-Bag as they came into earshot of their conversation.

“I’ve been working a lot more since Melody is on maternity-leave and Soos is taking more time off to help her with baby Lee,” she said to her friends. “We haven’t had too many customers so it hasn’t been too overwhelming, but it’d be better if we had some more hands on deck…”

Her voice trailed off as she noticed Pine Tree. She smiled, and her friends immediately lit up.  
“Hey, Dipper!” Lee happily greeted him. “It’s been too long!”

Pine Tree laughed as the tall blonde pulled him into a tight side hug. “I haven’t see you guys since my birthday party! It’s good to see you again!”

Nate snickered and stepped over to ruffle the kid’s hair. “It’s good to see you, too.”  
“So, is this that Gabe guy Wendy was telling us about?” Thompson chimed in, pointing at Bill.

That made Ice-Bag chuckle and Pine Tree stammer over his words as he tried to deny the claim. “N-no, no, no! Not at all! This is Bill.”

There was a small moment of silence after that.

“ _ Oh _ ,” Thompson murmured. He awkwardly rubbed his arm. “Whoops… sorry.”

“I’d say it’s not a big deal, but I’m kind of offended anyone would think I’m that puppet-fucker,” Bill muttered with a grin.

“ _ Bill! _ ” Dipper sharply exclaimed, giving him an angry glare. He then turned his gaze back to his friends. “I-ignore him.”

Bill just laughed it off, not caring that he had offended the kid.

The group’s conversation eventually carried on. Fortunately for Bill, it excluded him completely. He wasn’t interested in most of what they were talking about, anyway. Robbie discussed how he and Tambry were looking into taking over his parents’ jobs soon since they were planning to retire. Thompson mentioned how he was going to some college up in Portland, along with Lee and Nate, though they were all studying for different majors. 

Bill kept glancing back over his shoulder, hoping to see Shooting Star come through the doors, but every time he did, she wasn’t there. At one point, he actually heard the doors opened and got excited. He turned around but felt disappointment stab him as it wasn’t Shooting Star who walked in… but became interested when he realized it was instead Bud and Gideon Gleeful who had come in. 

Bill sneered and took a step forward to go approach them, but Pine Tree grabbed him by his arm and pulled him right back to his side. Bill let out a huff and bitterly crossed his arms, becoming even more annoyed and disinterested with the conversation.

A few minutes later, the door opened again, but Bill didn’t want to be disappointed again, so he didn’t bother looking back. It was only when he recognized the ever so memorable voice of Mabel that he turned around.

She was already heading in his direction with Llama, Grenda, and Candy walking along with her. She was wearing a white long-sleeved top with a burgundy skirt. Llama was wearing a grey turtleneck sweater dress and black leggings. Bill still had absolutely no clue what an “outfit emergency” technically was, but she looked just fine to Bill.

“Oh, hey, Mabel made it!” Ice-Bag said as she noticed the girls.

“Hi, guys!” the brunette loudly greeted as she reached the group. “Sorry we’re late! The dress that Pacifica was gonna wear got ruined in the washer. I was going to try to fix it, but we were running out of time,so I had to help her figure out a new outfit!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Tambry reassured her. “You’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”

Bill held his tongue, waiting for the right moment to intervene to greet Mabel, but was unsure of when that would be. Fortunately, she finally met his gaze and tackled him with a hug. Bill snickered and hugged her right back.

“Hi, Bill!” she happily chirped as she clung onto him. She stepped back to look him in the eyes again, but had her fingers interlocked with his. “I see you got my gift! Do you like it?”

“Of course I do! It looks a thousand times better than those bandages,” Bill eagerly replied. “Thank you, kiddo.”

She lit up and gave him a big grin. Bill looked over her shoulder at her brother who gave him a small, approving smile.

“Wow, that’s nicest thing I’ve  _ ever _ heard come out of your mouth!” Wendy exclaimed with a laugh.

Bill frowned and took a step away from the red-head.

All of a sudden, Bill could hear someone approaching them, though they were coming up on his blind side. He turned his head to look and felt an odd mixture of emotions as he saw who it was. 

“Oh, hello, Gideon!” Candy was the first to greet him. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

Gideon was shorter than Grenda, Candy, Pacifica, and Mabel, but was still taller than he was three years ago. His hair wasn’t as big as it had been before, but it was still white and ridiculous. He was wearing just a simple light-blue button-up and black pants instead of that stupid blue suit he had always worn.

“My dad and I thought this would be more fun than anything else we had going on,” he politely said. “I’m glad I came.”

He then met eyes with Bill. The kid easily recognized who he was, which made his expression change. “Or maybe not.”

“Hey, the feeling is mutual, you little shit,” Bill said with a sneer. “But, really, it’s been too long, Gleeful! Tell me, are you still a lying, backstabbing toddler?”

Gideon’s eyes narrowed before he replied, “I dunno. Are you still a manipulative, unsuccessful, asshole?”

Bill gritted his teeth and opened his mouth to spit back an insult, but Shooting Star intervened. “Come on, you two! Just… be nice for each other for a bit, okay? Just till dinner is over!”

Bill snorted and crossed his arms. “I’m just going to pretend he doesn’t exist until I can get away from that freak.”

“Sounds good to me,” Gideon said and frowned.

Bill heard small murmurs of shock and disappointment from the rest of the group. Pine Tree was pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

Everyone became distracted as the doors opened again. Bill watched in surprise as Puppet-Crazy-Gabe walked in. He wondered what he was doing here.

“God, I’m so sorry I’m so late!” the blonde exclaimed as he rushed over to the group. “I just lost track of time and had a hard time finding my way here.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, man!” Pine Tree chirped. He grabbed his other’s hands and put them on his own waist. “You’re not even that late. I’m just glad you’re here now.”

Gabe smiled and gave the brunette a quick kiss.

Bill flinched when Shooting Star shouted, “Whoa,  _ whoa _ , hold the phone! Since when have you two been a thing?!”

Gabe looked back at her and replied, “Uh, since like… the end of October?”

“ _ What?! _ ” she shrieked. “Dipper, my own twin brother, didn’t even tell me that he got a boyfriend?! How could you?!”

“I just… kind of forgot to tell you,” Pine Tree admitted, nervously avoiding eye contact. “Plus, you always get way too involved in my romantic life when I tell you about it.”

“I’m supporting you, dummy!” she argued and playfully punched him in the arm. That made him and Gabe laugh.

Mabel quickly let it go and moved on to introducing Gabe to everyone. Apparently, he hadn’t met any of the others, besides Wendy, Grenda, Candy, and Pacifica. To Bill’s relief, she didn’t bother making him introduce himself to Puppet-Boy.

Almost immediately after introducing himself, Question Mark showed up and told them, “Hey, dinner’s almost ready! You dudes probably should head to the dining room.”

Ice-Bag and her friend group quickly left with Question Mark to go with him the room. Pine Tree, Shooting Star, Llama, Grenda, Candy, Gideon, and Gabe followed along too, but a bit farther behind. Bill awkwardly walked along beside Shooting Star who was excitedly chatting with everyone and holding hands with Llama.

Bill examined the extravagant dining hall was they walked into it. A few people were already sitting at the long table with plates of food, but most of them were getting their meals from the buffet of food on the side of the room. Bill followed Mabel as she grabbed a plate from the table and headed to the buffet. He got the exact same food as Mabel and hoped she wouldn’t notice and say something. He didn’t know what was good or not, so he just decided to trust her opinion.

Shooting Star headed back to the table, so Bill followed her. He ended up sitting between Pine Tree and Shooting Star to his relief, though Sixer was only a few sits away from him. Bill couldn’t help but keep glancing over at him to make sure he wasn’t talking about him. Fortunately, he seemed pretty focused on just listening to what Glasses had to say.

Bill became distracted when Shooting Star started to speak. She was always so loud and expressive that it was hard for him to not pay attention to her whenever anything came out of her mouth.

“Oh, yeah! Paz and I’s two-and-a-half year anniversary was last week!” she happily exclaimed. She was looking in the direction of Melody, so Bill assumed she had asked about the anniversary. “She took me out to dinner and then we came home watched a ton of cheesy romcoms. It was our first anniversary we got to spend in person with each other!”

“Wait, you two are dating?” Bill questioned, gesturing to Shooting Star and Llama with his fork. 

“Uh, yeah,” the blonde girl replied. Her eyes narrowed as she placed a hand on Mabel’s knee. “Don’t tell me you have a problem with two girls dating.”

“What? Of course not,” Bill growled. He snorted and turned his attention back to his plate of food. “I just thought Shooting Star could do better than someone who was as much of a bitch to her as you were.”

Bill heard Pine Tree choke on his drink after hearing the comment.

Llama scoffed and opened her mouth to snap something back at Bill, but Shooting Star interrupted her. “Bill, i-it’s nice that you want someone who treats me well and all, but I love Pacifica! Yeah, we used to be enemies and said awful things about each other, but we’ve apologized and forgiven each other, and now we’re in love! That’s all that matters. Plus, there’s something kind of romantic about going from enemies to friends to lovers! Don’t you think so?”

Bill shrugged. “You’re asking the wrong person, kid. I’ve never been into any of that romance stuff. It’s kind of gross if you ask me.”

“Gross?” Gideon repeated. Bill looked up to meet eyes with the kid who sat a couple of seats away. “That’s something a child would say. You sound like an immature child.”

“Yeah, well, at least I don’t  _ look _ like an immature child,” Bill retorted.

“Do you not?” Gideon frowned. “I mean, aren’t you supposed to be, what, a trillion-year-old being? Being fifteen or sixteen is like being a baby compared to that.”

Bill sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wow, do you really think that I could get a completely accurate physical form of myself? Do you know what a trillion-year-old human body would look like? I’d be nothing. Any body that old would have completely rotted by that age.”

“I mean, Gideon’s kind of got a point,” Grenda suddenly chimed in. She seemed a little shy to butt into the conversation, but she did.

“Wouldn’t you at least be Stan or Ford’s age? Or something close to that?” Candy added.

Bill sat down his fork as he realized he wasn’t going to be eating for a moment as he decided to actually explain the situation. “Have you really not thought about that maybe dream demons and humans work very differently? Age was a _ much _ different thing in my species. We didn’t exactly have physical forms, so age wasn’t exactly based on your physical age. It mostly based on maturity, both emotionally and mentally, since we were mind-based creatures. I’m probably a teenager because I… never grew up. I like to party and be a rule-breaker and do fun stuff, so, I guess maturity-wise, that translates to me being a teenager.”

“You were saying that in past tense.”

Bill turned his head to look at Pine Tree and raised an eyebrow. “What?”  
“When you were talking about your species,” Pine Tree meekly explained. “You talked about them in the past tense, like they don’t exist anymore.” 

Bill’s gut twisted for a second. His mouth hung open as he tried to decide what he wanted to say. He avoided eye contact and went to poke his food with his fork.

“I was the last of my kind,” Bill reluctantly said. “So, now that I’m not a dream demon anymore, we’re extinct.”

After a small pause, he snorted and spat out a joke. “Congratulations, Pines, you eradicated an entire species!”

“Are we _ really _ the ones to blame for that?”

Bill’s head jolted up to look at Sixer after hearing that. His face heated up and he felt his muscles tensen. He grinded his teeth together as he searched for a reply, but he was too furious and shocked to find anything good to say.

He ducked his head back down again and started to eat again.

After a moment or two of waiting, Sixer finally returned his attention to the others and talked to them instead. There was an awkward minute or two of silence between the kids after they heard what Ford had said, but fortunately, they carried on with other conversations. Bill was just glad that they kept him out of it.

_ How many times do I have to tell him to mind his own fucking business? _ Bill’s thoughts snarled.  _ You shouldn’t talk about things you know  _ nothing _ about, you know-it-all piece of shit…  _

Bill had his hand clenched up into a tight fist in his lap. His long and manicured fingernails (thanks to Shooting Star) dug deep into the palm of his hand. After a couple of minutes, Bill couldn’t help but let out a hiss of pass as the stinging in his palm became too much for him. He looked down at it and expected to see blood oozing from the punctures, but to his relief, or disappointment, there were only deep, red marks. His nails hadn’t broken the skin of his hand, but at least left it stinging.

Mabel finally caught notice of Bill’s palm a while later and quickly grabbed a napkin and put a few ice cubes from her drink in it. She rested the self-made ice pack on his hand and reassured him that they’d take a look at it later. She kept a hand on his wrist for the rest of the time, gently holding it the same way she would’ve held onto his hand. It oddly soothed Bill enough to keep all the angry thoughts of Sixer out of his head for a while.

Everyone eventually finished their meals and their conversations seemed to slow down. Bill got the notation that they were probably going to go home soon, fortunately… but, all of a sudden, Sixer stood up from his seat. Bill felt his heart beat a little faster with worry.

“I, um, realize how cheesy this is, but I’d still like to make a little speech,” he said with a small chuckle. “While I’m sure most of us, including myself, dislike what this holiday usually stands for, it is nice to have a time of the year that truly reminds us to realize what we are thankful for. I just want to say that I am beyond thankful for you all.”

Ford then rested one of his hands on Fiddleford’s shoulder and the other on Stan’s. He smiled at them before continuing. “Every single one of you are amazing in your special way, and it has been such an honor to be able to get to know you. While we might not all be related by blood, I consider all of you my family, and I couldn’t ask for a better one. Thank you all so much. I hope you know how much you mean to me.”

Everyone burst into exclamations of affection and some of them even clapped. Sixer was smooshed in a group hug between Glasses and Fez. 

Bill stopped staring at Sixer after he felt Mabel let go of his wrist. He watched as she got up to go say her goodbyes to Ice-Bag’s friends. As Bill looked around more, he realized everyone were finishing up their conversations, hugging and saying their farewells. Bill was the only one left at the table, doing nothing.

Bill suddenly felt an odd feeling in his gut. He frowned as he realized that watching everyone be so affectionate and caring with each other was making his emotions act up. He recognized the feeling as longing.

He wondered what if felt like to be cared about like that by so many people. Despite the fact that they were all so different, they considered each other family, one of the closest bonds humans could have. That had to feel nice, Bill supposed. To be wanted and cared sounded  _ really _ nice…  but Bill knew that he didn’t have that, and he most likely never would. That bothered him more than he thought it would.

“Hey, are you ready to go?” 

Bill looked up at Shooting Star. He hesitated for a moment, but then shook his head and said, “Uh, yeah.”

She smiled at him as he stood up. She gently grabbed Bill’s unwounded hand and held onto it as they started to leave. He expected that to make him feel better, but if anything, it ended up making him feel worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ssssorry i havent updated in over week!!! my life is Kind Of A Big Mess rn, so im having trouble writing ://  
> im a bit behind in writing chapters + a writer's block doesn't help, so im sorry if updates are super duper slow in the next few weeks :(( ALSO apologies if this sounds weird or theres a bunch of errors in it?? i dont have a beta reader and im vry sleep deprived so,,,,


	20. Chapter 20

“You know, when it gets warmer, we’ll have to go out and do some real stargazing,” Dipper told his boyfriend with a smile.

“That sounds like a date to me,” Gabe replied, pulling Dipper closer to him.

It was pretty cold, but that hadn’t stopped Dipper from wanting to sit outside and enjoy the peaceful night. Plus, he had Gabe to cuddle up with to keep him warm as they sat on the steps of the porch. The sky showed a few stars, not as many as Dipper had been hoping to see, but he was just happy to see any at all.

But, of course, all good things had to come to an end. This happened when Dipper suddenly heard yelling from inside the house.

Gabe looked over his shoulder as the screaming and shouting intensified. His eyebrows furrowed together with worry. “That’s not who I think it is, is it?”

“It is,” Dipper said with a sigh. He was all too familiar with those two voices.

“Do they always fight whenever you and I are trying to enjoy each other’s company?” Gabe joked with a small chuckle.

“Actually, they’ve started arguing a lot more recently,” the brunette murmured. “They’ve gotten into two fights in the last two weeks. They got into a small one after Bill accidentally broke a plate, but there was a worse one when Bill made a really,  _ really _ graphic joke about killing Gompers and Waddles. Neither of those ended in a physical fight or anything, but they’re still… scary, sometimes. I worry about Grunkle Ford a lot. Bill could probably really hurt him if he wanted to.”

Dipper hesitated for a moment before he turned around to crawl into Gabe’s lap. He wrapped his legs around his waist and pulled him into a hug. 

“We should probably wait to go back inside until they’re done,” Dipper softly said. “It’s not fun to walk in the middle of that.”

“Yeah, I bet so,” the blonde muttered, turning his gaze away from the door. Gabe then rested his chin on Dipper’s shoulder and rubbed his back. “I’m sorry you have to deal with this, babe. I wish I could do something to help.”

“S’fine,” Dipper slurred out. “You just being here helps.”

As he sat there with Gabe, he tried to listen to the conversation inside. It sounded like Bill and Ford were in the living room, not too far away from the doorway that led to the foyer, because he could hear them pretty well.

“-such a fucking coward! Just do it already!” Bill snarled. “I don’t want to be here as badly as you don’t want me here, so just fucking do it!”

“Like I’d give you what you want!” Ford shouted back right back. That was the most angry Dipper had _ ever _ heard Ford.

“It’s what  _ you _ want!” Bill was probably going to strain his voice if he kept screaming at that volume. “You know it what’s you want, so just  _ do it _ ! Do it, kill me! Kill me, Sixer! Kill-”

Dipper and Gabe both flinched as they suddenly heard something hit the floor inside the shack. Dipper knew exactly what was happening.

“Holy shit,” Gabe whispered. “S-should we go break them up?”

Dipper opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by more ruckus and another voice joining the scene: Stan. Most of the time, it was Mabel who broke up the fights, but she was in the gift shop with Soos, Melody, and baby Lee. It looked like Stan was having to step in for her.

“Stay right there and try to breathe, okay? You need to relax,” Stan suddenly instructed after a minute or two of jumbled and hard to make out arguing. “I’m taking Bill to the basement. We’ll talk when I come back.”

There was a few seconds of shuffling, and then silence. Ford was now the only one there.

“That’s the first time things have turned physical since that one time we were on the phone,” Dipper commented. He knew Ford couldn’t hear him from where they were, but he still kept his voice low. “That’s really not good…”

Gabe sighed. “I know. Do… do you want to go inside?”

“I’m not sure,” the brunette admitted.

Dipper waited for a minute or two before he slowly unlatched himself from Gabe and hesitantly went to the door. Gabe followed along right behind him. Just as Dipper placed his hand on the doorknob, he suddenly heard footsteps. He pulled his hand right back and stared at the door.

“So,” Stan said. He let out a rough sigh. “Do you want to explain to me why you were trying to strangle Bill?”

“ _ Strangle _ ?” Gabe repeated in a shocked tone. Dipper gently hushed him and tried to listen more closely.

“Apparently, he saw me talking to Tad at the store,” Ford angrily muttered. Dipper had a hard time making out what exactly Ford was saying. It sounded like he had his head in his hands. “He thinks I-I’m trying to plot his murder or something with Tad, when all I really want is answers! I’m not some cold-blooded killer like him-”

“I’m not saying that Bill’s right, but you  _ did _ just try to choke him to death,” Stan pointed out, slightly interrupting his brother.

There was a moment of silence after that.

“I don’t want to hurt Bill but he just…  _ pushes _ me,” Ford suddenly said in a low tone. “It’s hard to not want to take advantage of him in this weakened form after everything he’s ever done to us! All he does is remind me of how angry I am at him… a-and now I  _ finally  _ have an opportunity to put him down for good, but I… couldn’t live with myself if I actually did. I’d be just as bad as he is.”

Dipper heard Stan sigh again before he spoke. “I know how you feel, Poindexter. I really do, but you’re right about killing him. It wouldn’t be okay. I don’t think it would make us  _ as _ bad as he was but… it’d definitely leave a sour taste in my mouth.”

Ford hesitated for a moment. “What are we going to do about him, Stanley?”

“What do you mean?” Stan asked.

“In a couple of weeks, Bill will have been here for four months,” Ford began to explain. “I was onboard with Mabel’s idea about possibly ‘reforming’ Bill at the beginning but now I’m just losing hope. He still hasn’t told us anything about him coming back and he’s still aggressive and awful as ever. I don’t want to admit it because I know how cruel it sounds, but we need to start thinking of…  _ other options _ for Bill. W-we can’t just keep him here forever. At some point or another, he’s going to act out, whether that be about us keeping him cooped up in here, or something else.”

“I’m assuming by ‘act out’, you mean hurt or kill us?” Stan asked.

There was a small pause before Stan spoke again, so Dipper assumed that Ford had just nodded in reply.

“Ford, listen,” he began. “I know what you mean, but I think we… just need to keep doing what we’re doing. Bill hasn’t made any  _ huge _ revelations about how shitty he is, but he’s gotten a little better in these past few months. Like I said, it’s nothing big but those little steps do matter. You know, he might eventually lash out, but we can’t be sure about that. Unfortunately, I think all we can do right now is just kind of hope for the best.”

“I just…” Ford’s voice trailed off into a deep sigh. “I don’t know… I’m just… so tired of him. I’m starting to think I’ll never be free from him.”

“Hey, don’t say that,” Stan quickly replied. “You never know what could happen. I mean, if I’m being honest, I thought we would’ve had to kill Bill by now, but hey, we haven’t! I… I know it can be hard to think optimistically about this kind of stuff, especially when… you’ve got trauma with it, but you just gotta try, okay? I’m not telling you to completely drop your guard about him, but try to keep a little more of an open mind… and, hey, I’m always here for you. You can talk to me about anything anytime.”

“Thank you, Stanley.” Ford paused for a moment. “But, if we don’t get anywhere in the next week with Bill, I’m going to meet up with Tad. He’s offered answers, and if Bill is unwilling to give us them, then I will gladly get them from Tad.”

“Sounds alright to me,” Stan gently agreed. “Just let me know when you do, okay?”  
“Hey there, lovebirds!”  
Dipper let out a loud yelp and whirled around to see Melody who had just called to him and Gabe. She was with Mabel and Soos, who was hold their baby.

The brunette stammered over his words for second before eventually choking out, “O-oh, hey guys!”

“We’re just about to head home for the night and wanted to say goodbye to you two dudes,” Soos happily told them.

Soos then gently grabbed Lee’s little hand to wave at them. Dipper couldn’t help but chuckle and wave back. He noticed Gabe waving too, which made him smile even more.

Dipper got up to go give Melody and Soos hugs and tell them goodnight before they got in their car and headed home. Gabe lingered by his side as the two of them and Mabel watched Melody and Soos drive home.

“Stan already took Bill downstairs, so I guess we don’t have to,” Mabel suddenly said. Dipper felt his gut twist with unease. “He wouldn’t tell me why he just randomly took Bill downstairs all of a sudden, but I didn’t want to argue with him. I hope Bill’s alright.”

“If there was any big problem, Stan would’ve probably told you, so I’m sure he’s okay,” Gabe chimed in. “Either way, you’ll be able to check on him in the morning, right?”

Mabel shrugged and then smiled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Dipper watched as Mabel then eagerly leaped up the porch and to the backdoor. “Let’s get you two goobers inside before you freeze to death!”  
“Sounds good to me,” Dipper said with a grin.

He held onto Gabe’s hand as they headed back up the porch and inside. Ford and Stan were in the living room still, but their attention had now be turned to them.

“You three heading to bed?” Stan asked. He had a small smile on his face. If Dipper hadn’t heard what he had before, he would’ve just assumed Ford and him were having a normal conversation, unlike the one they were having.

“Yeah,” Dipper murmured. “We’ll probably just hang out in our room for a bit and then go to sleep.”

“Well, don’t stay up too late,” Ford than said. “Goodnight. Get some rest.”

“Goodnight, Grunkle Ford! Goodnight, Grunkle Stan!” Mabel chirped before rushing up the stairs.

“Goodnight, Mr. Pines,” Gabe politely said. “Thanks for letting me spend the night.”

“Don’t mention it, kid,” Stan replied. “Goodnight.”

Dipper also said his goodnights before heading upstairs.

Though the half-hour he spent with his sister and boyfriend was fun and lighthearted, and he was beyond happy to be falling asleep with Gabe spooning him, his thoughts would not let him forget what he overheard. They conflicted against one another when it came to Bill, and it was beyond confusing and anxiety-inducing. He was both on Stan’s side of wanting to hope that Bill would just eventually get better and Ford’s side of worrying that Bill was going to do something. Both scenarios seemed likely to him at this point.

Dipper tried his best to drown out those thoughts by counting to the highest possible number he could and burying himself deeper into Gabe’s arms. Eventually, he fell asleep, but even his dreams just reminded him of all the possibilities with Bill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Lived, Bitch  
> hi i hope this chapter isn't as rough as i think it is!!! writer's block has been kicking my ass so i've been struggling a bit, but i hope this works  
> i finally finished up my semester (with shockingly good grades too, go me!) and, hopefully, second semester wont' be as crazy, but i'll try to stack up some chapters before then so even if it does, y'all will get some content  
> thanks for all the support and being so patient!! <33


	21. Chapter 21

“Ow, fuck!”

Bill hissed as he pulled his hand away from his neck. He had been prodding the marks on his neck that were left from Sixer trying to kill him a few nights earlier. The bruises were pretty sore, but not too noticeable, fortunately. Bill made sure to pull up the hood of his hoodie closer to his neck more than ever to avoid questioning from the kids. He wasn’t about to have to explain to them how their uncle had tried to murder him.

Bill became sidetracked from his bruises as he heard the sound of hooves stomping across the carpet and something hitting the floor. He looked over, and as expected, Gompers had knocked some ornaments off the Christmas tree.

The blonde sighed and left the comfort of the lounge chair to cross the room to the tree. He had been trying to enjoy a holiday movie Shooting Star had left on for him, but guessed he had to deal with this now.

“You brat,” Bill snapped. He shooed the goat away before he kneeled down to pick up the ornaments. “That kid spent hours on this tree. Quit ruining her hard work.”

Bill grumbled as he tried to figure out where the ornaments were supposed to go. He could easily tell where they belonged because of the few blank places in the tree that weren’t already covered by tinsel, lights, or other ornaments. He carefully placed them back on, trying not to screw up any of the other decorations on the tree. 

As Bill put on the last ornament that was near the bottom of the tree, he couldn’t help but catch a glance at one of the presents under it. He saw lots of them, all marked for one of the Pines, but the one that had truly caught his attention was one with  _ his _ name on it. He leaned a bit closer to see that “from S.S. and P.T.” was written on it in Shooting Star’s handwriting with in glittery red and green ink. 

“Did Gompers knock more ornaments off  _ again _ ?”

Bill flinched and whirled his head around to look at Pine Tree who had just spoken. He was standing in the doorway with his sister. Bill instantly sat up and tried to act like he hadn’t just been looking at his present. He felt blood rushing to his face.

“Yeah,” he quickly replied. “I put them back though.”

“At least he’s not eating them,” Mabel optimistically pointed out.

The girl then skipped over to Bill and squatted down next to him. She inspected the tree and then smiled. “Hey, you got them back in the right spots! Good job!”

“Uh, thanks,” Bill said with a small smirk.

The blonde then rested his head on his hand. He was trying his best to not look at the present out of the corner of his eye, even though his curiosity was screaming at him to say something. Why the hell did those kids get him a gift? What in the world could they have got him anyways?

Mabel must have caught the small glance he gave to the gift because she gave him a big grin. “Oh, did you see your present?”

Bill stammered over his words for a moment before realizing how stupid he looked. He mumbled out, “Y-yeah.”

“Hey, Dipper!” Mabel excitedly chirped. “Can we give Bill his present early?”

Bill felt his face heaten up again. “K-kid, you don’t have to do that.”

“Well, I want to, so…” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Sure,” Pine Tree said as he headed over to them. He sat down next to his sister. “It might make things a little less awkward if you open it now instead of on Christmas morning, since it’s your only present.”

“I don’t mind,” Bill said, narrowing his eye.

“Bill, just open the present!” Shooting Star exclaimed as she shoved the gift into his arms.

Bill awkwardly held the present for a moment, staring at it. He then started hesitantly ripping off the green-and-white wrapping paper until it was free of it. Bill was left with a thin, rectangular box in his possession, which he then opened. The object that was inside was folded to in fit in the box, so Bill pulled it out to get a better view of it.

It was a yellow sweater that looked like the ones Mabel wore. She had handmade all of those herself, so this one was probably also made by her. As Bill gazed towards the bottom of the sweater, he saw some darker rectangular lines that looked like a brick-pattern. He quickly realized it was meant to look like his triangle-self. 

Oddly enough, Bill felt his heart swell. If he was being honest, he had expected something much smaller and meaningless, not something that was so genuine and had so much effort put into it. 

“You can thank Dipper for the idea,” Mabel suddenly told him. “He would’ve helped if he actually knew how to knit.”

“Hey, knitting is hard!” Pine Tree said with a snicker. He playfully elbowed his sister. “You can’t blame me for not being able to pick it up.”

“You two didn’t have to do this,” Bill finally said, catching their attention.

“Of course we didn’t _ have _ to, but we wanted to!” Shooting Star chirped. “You’re our friend, and we like to spoil our friends for the holidays. Plus, this is your first Christmas, and what’s Christmas without at least one present?”

Bill glanced at her. He wanted to say so much in that moment, but too much of it made him look weak and sappy. He was already as vulnerable as it was, so he kept his mouth shut. He looked back down at his sweater again.

“Do you wanna try it on?” Pine Tree suggested, breaking the small moment of silence.

The blonde looked up at him before quickly replying, “Oh, yeah… sure.”

Bill quickly yanked off his hoodie and set it aside. He felt awkward being shirtless, even just for a split moment, so he rushed to put on his new sweater. After he pulled it down and adjusted it a bit, he looked down at himself. Just from that view, he thought it looked pretty good.

“It looks like it fits you great!” Mabel happily exclaimed. “How does it feel?”

Bill rubbed the sleeves of his sweater. “Soft… I like it. Thank you, kid. You, too, Pine Tree. You… you really didn’t have to do this.”

“Quit saying that,” Pine Tree said with a small smile. “That’s kind of the whole point of gifts. No one _ has _ to give anyone a gift. It’s just a nice gesture.”

Bill frowned as he realized something. “I didn’t get you guys anything.”

“Uh, yeah. We know that,” Dipper replied and chuckled. “It’s not like you have anything you could make for us, or go out to the store and buy something for us.”

“That just doesn’t seem fair,” Bill admitted, staring at his lap.

“We don’t mind!” Mabel reassured him. “We just wanted to do something nice for you. We didn’t expect you to return the favor!”

Bill went to reply, but was interrupted as Ice-Bag suddenly entered the room. “Hey, if you guys want to make it to Gabe’s recital on time, we better head out now.”

“I’m guessing that means I have to go downstairs?” Bill said with a sigh. 

“No, you can stay up here and watch these Christmas movies!” Mabel told him. “We’ll be back in a few hours, so I’ll take you downstairs then. Enjoy yourself for now!”

She then pulled his face close and gave him a friendly kiss on his temple. Bill grumbled and wiped the kiss off with his sleeve. Mabel just laughed and rolled her eyes before she jumped to her feet.

“Bye, Bill!” she happily said as she and Pine Tree went to leave with Ice-Bag. 

Pine Tree smiled at him and waved goodbye too before the three headed out through the backdoor. Bill sat there for a moment with a small smile on his face, just enjoying the warm feeling in his chest.

Those kids really _ did _ like him. They  _ genuinely _ liked him. Bill always had the sneaking suspicion that they were just nice to him because they were scared of him, but, no, they wouldn’t go this far if that were the case. They really, truly thought of him as their friend and cared about him. Bill really liked that idea. He  _ really _ did. It was so comforting to know that at least someone out there didn’t hate him. 

The warm, fuzzy thoughts and feelings Bill was having slowly faded though as his fingers trailed back up to his neck. The soreness from his bruises were a not-so-friendly reminder that it was  _ only _ those two kids that cared about him. No one else.

Bill blinked, frowned, and turned his head back towards the TV, hoping that the movie that was on would distract him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i probs shouldnt be posting this yet but i live with my regrets!!!! plus this chapter is a shorty but a goody so why not ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	22. Chapter 22

Dipper squeezed Gabe’s hand as they rushed out of Wendy’s car. He pressed himself up against the blonde, trying to preserve his warmth, as well as steal some from Gabe. The two boys grinned and laughed as they scampered up to the porch with Wendy and Mabel following along.

“Thanks again for coming to my recital,  _ and _ taking me out to dinner,” Gabe told them with a big smile. “It was a lot of fun!”

“No problem, dude,” Wendy replied as she opened the door. “I’ve never gone to a choir concert before. I liked it more than I thought I was going to, if I’m being honest.”

Gabe snickered. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself!”

Mabel pushed past the others as they got inside, but she skidded to a halt as she entered the entryway to the living room. She tilted her head and loudly asked, “Hey, where’s Bill?”

“I took him downstairs,” Ford called from the kitchen.

That got everyone’s attention, especially Mabel’s. She, once again, rushed past Dipper, Gabe, and Wendy to enter the kitchen. Dipper followed behind her, dragging Gabe along with him. Stan, Ford, Soos, Melody, and baby Lee were in the kitchen. Stan was holding Lee, who was fast asleep, in his arms.

“Grunkle Ford, I told Bill I was going to take him downstairs when we got home,” Mabel murmured. Dipper didn’t have to see her face to know she was pouting. He could hear it in her voice.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but it was getting late and he needed to go downstairs,” Stan told her, trying to keep his voice low to keep from waking up Lee.

“Oh, Dipper, Mabel!” Melody suddenly exclaimed as she saw their faces. The twins stepped a little closer to her as they saw her pull something out her pocket. “Soos and I were in the living room with Bill and we started talking to him about the present you guys got him. He mentioned feeling bad about not getting you guys anything, and I happened to remember that we had a bunch of arts and crafts stuff lying around in one of the closets. I let him pick one, and he made these for you guys!”

Melody handed one bracelet to Dipper and the other to Mabel. They were beaded bracelets that Dipper was all too familiar with since Mabel used to make them a lot when they was younger. His was made of blue and white beads and had letter beads that spelled out “PINE TREE” on it. He glanced over at Mabel’s, which was pink and yellow and had the name “SHOOTING STAR” on it, respectively. 

“He told me to go ahead and give you guys them since he had to go downstairs,” Melody added with a shrug and then smiled. “They’re kind of really cute.”

“Oh my  _ gosh _ !” Mabel squealed. “This is _ so _ sweet! That goober is gonna get the  _ biggest _ hug tomorrow, I swear!”

Dipper smiled and watched as Mabel scrambled to put hers on. He put his on too, but slower and calmer than his sister did. “This is honestly way more thoughtful than I thought it was going to be. This is really nice!”

“You’re not actually going to wear that, are you?” Gabe suddenly said.

Dipper looked up at him, a bit surprised and confused. He finished putting on the bracelet before hesitantly saying, “I mean… yeah? It’s a present. He’s wearing the one we gave him, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t wear the one he gave me.” 

“But he’s…  _ Bill _ ,” Wendy muttered. “Plus, don’t you hate those nicknames?”

“I think Bill’s nicknames for us are kind of cute!” Mabel interjected. 

“Yeah, well, he doesn’t call you ‘Ice-Bag’,” Wendy said and crossed her arms. Dipper couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“I don’t mind my nickname, and Bill’s really not that bad,” Dipper then softly admitted.

Dipper didn’t expect everyone to go silent after he spoke, but they did. He glanced around at everyone who was staring at him with wide eyes.

“Y’know, I would totally expect Mabel to say that, but not  _ you _ ,” Soos said, finally breaking the silence.

“I-I’m just being honest,” Dipper murmured. He awkwardly rubbed his arm. “He’s more tolerable now, and he can be nice… sometimes.”

“ _ Nice _ ?” Ford repeated. “When?”

Dipper opened his mouth for a second, but then hesitated. It took him a moment, but he decided that now was better than never, he guessed.

“Actually, um… last month Bill practically saved my life,” Dipper nervously began to explain. He paused for a moment before he continued. “I was taking out the trash and a couple of guys started… harassing me for being trans. T-they tried to beat me up- kind of- but Bill showed up because Mabel had asked him to come help me take out the trash. He ended up beating up one of them and scaring them both off- he even tried to comfort me afterwards. I-I’m pretty sure I would’ve ended up hurt or worse if it hadn’t been for him.”

Ford’s eyes widened with horror as he seemed to process what had just been told to him. He got to his feet and pulled Dipper into a tight hug. Dipper felt tears begin to form in his eyes, but ended up fighting them back.

“Jesus, Dipper, why didn’t you tell us that happened?” Ford finally said and stepped away.

“I-I was just really freaked out and didn’t want to talk about it,” Dipper admitted, avoiding eye contact. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Ford quickly told him. He put a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Wait, Bill really did that?” Wendy jumped in. Dipper nodded in reply, which made her scoff. “Huh… maybe he’s changed more than we’ve given him credit for.”

Dipper watched as Ford opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. His face twisted between expressions as he seemed to think about what Wendy had said.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you guys,” Mabel abruptly said. “He’s gotten a little nicer! He likes me and Dipper. He’ll come around to everyone else eventually, too. I’m sure of it!”

“Don’t get your hopes too high, Mabel,” Ford replied. “Bill’s still… Bill.”

Mabel sighed. “I’ve heard that a thousand times-”

“I know you have and that’s because I want you to  _ really  _ take it to heart,” he suddenly said, interrupting Mabel. “Bill’s done some stuff that you two don’t know about, and I’m sure he’s done a lot of things that  _ I _ don’t even know about. He’s… not a good person, to say the least. Maybe he’s a little better now, but he still has a terrible history of being a liar and backstabber. You can’t just forget about that.”

“I  _ haven’t _ . I promise,” she quickly replied. Her tone was a bit more serious now. “But I’m trying to give him a chance, and I can’t do that if all I do is expect the worst of him. I’m not stupid, Grunkle Ford. I’m giving him enough of an opportunity to improve himself, but not enough to take advantage of me. If I really thought he was going to hurt us or anything, I would do something.”

“Stanley, did you tell them what happened a few weeks ago?” Ford suddenly asked, turning his gaze to his brother.

Stan hesitated for a second before looking to the ground. “Uh… no. That night that you two fell asleep in the living room with Bill, I caught him with Dipper’s pocket knife. He gave it up pretty easily and said he wasn’t trying to do anything, but… I don’t know. It was weird.”

There was a small moment of silence after that.

“But he  _ didn’t _ do anything,” Dipper meekly pointed out after taking a minute to think about it. “If anything, that kind of proves Mabel’s point. He had the opportunity to do something to us, but didn’t.”

“Probably only because Stan caught him,” Gabe mumbled, crossing his arms.

“Bill’s had plenty of other times to hurt us and hasn’t,” Dipper said, a bit more harshly than he intended. He relaxed and shook his head. “Can we just… drop this? It’s dumb that we’re  _ arguing _ about Bill.”

The tenison in the room had grown uncomfortable and Dipper was sure he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Dipper hadn’t intended for his comment on Bill to turn into this, but it did, and he honestly felt bad about it.

Gabe suddenly nodded and placed his hand on Dipper’s back. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We should spend our time doing something better, right?”

Murmurs of agreement came from everyone before they slowly, and  _ awkwardly _ , headed their own ways to do their own things. Dipper ended up sitting in the living room with Gabe as they watched some weird TV show that was on, but as always, Dipper’s thoughts were preoccupied with Bill. He wondered if that’s what Bill wanted: them arguing about and becoming divided on how they felt about him…

But Dipper as Dipper glanced down at his new bracelet, he doubted that thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to get this chapter out a LOT sooner than it actually ended up getting posted, i apologize!! im just glad i got it out now bc i wanted to start 2018 with a Pretty Important chapter ;))  
> also sorry if this chapter seems super messy or theres a ton of grammatical errors? i meant to revise and edit it tonight, but i have a massive headache so im not thinking too straight


	23. Chapter 23

It was the night after Christmas, and Mabel had decided to invite Gabe, Grenda, Pacifica, and Candy over as their own kind of “Friendsmas”, as she called it. Dipper was very happy to see his friends and boyfriend, and even more happy to give them their presents. He was a little distracted by Bill being upstairs with them, though.

The former-dream demon usually wanted absolutely nothing to do with their friends, and would practically _ beg _ to be put in the basement when they showed up, but this time, he didn’t. In fact, he didn’t mind at all when Mabel offered to let him stay upstairs. He had been pretty quiet the entire night, despite Mabel’s effort to get him involved in conversations and other activities, but he didn't seem to be in a bad mood. He actually seemed pretty content just sitting around and listening to everyone’s conversations.

Bill ended up sitting behind Mabel on the floor, trying to braid her as she chatted with everyone. She had taught him a few days ago and he was still trying to perfect the skill. Dipper was paying attention and listening to Mabel, but he also found Bill equally as entertaining as the conversation. He kept glancing back between Mabel telling her story and Bill making frustrated faces as he struggled to braid her hair.

Dipper became distracted from both his forms of entertainment as the door in foyer opened. He turned his head to see Ford coming in from the cold. Dipper had almost entirely forgotten that he had left much earlier in the day to supposedly go to Fiddleford’s. Dipper’s mind had just convinced him that he was over at the table in the living room with Soos, Melody, Stan, and Wendy, who were busy playing cards.

Dipper opened his mouth to greet Ford, but his voice trailed off as his uncle stormed right past him, not even looking at him. He stopped right in front of Mabel, and stared at the blonde behind her.

“Bill,” he simply said in a low tone. “We need to have a talk.  _ Now _ .”

Bill looked up at Ford with one wide eye. He shrunk down, mouth gaping open as he searched for a reply. Dipper’s eyebrows furrowed together with worry before he scooted closer to Bill and softly said, “Hey, I’ll come with you, if you want-”

“No, Dipper.” Ford’s stern voice made him flinch. “ _ Just _ me and Bill.”

Bill sunk down even deeper to hide behind Mabel, who seemed pretty confused about what was happening. Everyone else in the room had gone silent now and was watching the scene unfold in front of them.

“I would _ hope _ you can understand why I’m a little reluctant to be alone with _ just _ you,” Bill finally replied. “I’m sure anything you can tell me you could say around at least one other person in this room, especially the kids.”

Ford snorted. “I was going to try to show a little kindness and have this be a private matter, but if you are going to be like this, then it doesn’t have to be.”

“What the hell could be a private matter between you and me?” Bill snapped back. His fear of Ford seemed to be slowly diminishing and being replaced with annoyance instead. 

“I talked to Tad,” Ford replied. 

Dipper felt his stomach drop. Oh  _ no _ . Oh, _ god _ , no. This wasn’t going to end well. Not at  _ all _ .

Bill immediately jumped to his feet, nearly knocking both of the twins over. Dipper felt Gabe pull him back and away from Bill. The blonde kept a tight, protective grip on him that Dipper would’ve pulled out of if he wasn’t so caught up in what was about to happen.

“You did  _ what _ ?!” Bill shrieked, his voice cracking. “ _ Fucking _ \- what did I tell you about talking to him?! You shouldn’t listen to him; he’s out of his mind! He tried to _ rip out my eye _ ! He’s a revenge-crazy lunatic!”

“That doesn't sound too different from you, so I’m not sure why you’re being so judgemental of him,” Stanford calmly retorted. That made Bill scoff and stammer over his words. “But either way, you’re wrong about him. Tad is quite friendly and was very cooperative. We had a nice, long talk about you, and he was much more helpful than you have  _ ever _ been.”

Bill huffed. “You _ shouldn’t listen to him _ -”

“Why don’t you tell me about the Axolotl, Bill?”

Bill hesitated after he heard that.

“D-don’t say that name,” he managed to choke out. His hands twisted into tight fists that made his knuckles turn white. “Don’t ever,  _ ever  _ say that fucking name  _ ever _ again.”

“Well, if Tad is such the deranged liar you make him out to be, and I shouldn’t listen to him, then why don’t you tell me everything, huh?” Ford said, getting in Bill’s face. He was trying to provoke him, and it was making Dipper unimaginably anxious. “Why don’t you tell me about why you’re human? Why don’t you tell me about Tad and why he’s human,  _ or _ what happened to the rest of your species-”

“How many fucking times do I have to tell you to not bring that up?!” Bill shrieked. “Keep that out of your  _ fucking mouth _ ! Don’t talk about things that have been  _ manipulated _ to make  _ me _ look like the bad guy!”

“ _ Look  _ like the bad guy? Are you _ kidding  _ me?” Ford scoffed. “You burnt down your  _ entire dimension _ with everyone in it! You  _ killed  _ everyone! You  _ are  _ the bad guy! There’s no other way to look at it- you committed mass murder!”

“You don’t know  _ anythin _ g,” Bill hissed.

Ford frowned. “Then why don’t you tell me?”

“It is _ none  _ of your  _ business- _ ” Dipper noticed that Bill’s voice was breaking.

Ford interrupted him. “ _ Tell me _ , Bill.”

Dipper watched as Mabel tried to say something but was drowned out by Bill shouting, “Fuck  _ you _ -”

Ford interrupted him again. “Tell me.”

“No, fuck you!”

“ _ Bill _ -”

“ _ What _ ? What do you want to hear, Stanford?” Bill finally snapped. “Do you want to hear me admit it? That I killed everyone and everything that I grew up with? That I’m responsible for the extinction of my culture and people? All because I was some dumb kid who made a dumb mistake?”

Ford opened his mouth to reply but Bill kept rambling. His words were slurred together because he was talking so fast. “I was trying to  _ help _ them. We-  _ they  _ deserved more than what they had, and I wanted to _ do _ something about it. They had nothing and I knew that they deserved to at least be able to interact with the real world- it was _ all  _ I wanted for them. T-that was  _ all I wanted _ \- but I was in over my head and I screwed up. I just… I screwed up.”

Fortunately, Ford kept quiet when Bill paused for a moment to catch his breath and regather his thoughts.

“I killed  _ everyone _ . The only people that were left were me a-and… Tad. I-I didn’t deserve his patience. He just wanted to help me, and he found god-like beings that could help fix my mistake. We talked to  _ so many  _ people, but… everyone just assumed that I was some…  _ power-hungry lunatic _ .” Bill’s tone suddenly shifted to sounding more bitter than regretful. “I guess it made more sense that what I did was purposeful and planned than just a stupid miscalculation. Apparently, word travels around quickly in the multiverse, and it isn’t always truthful. Everywhere we went we were treated like we had committed  _ genocide _ , when in reality, I was just some dumb kid with the only other person he had left in the world looking to fix an awful, _ awful  _ mistake.”

Bill hesitated before letting out a chuckle. “But, you know, after so many years of being told you’re a deranged murderer, it kinda…  _ gets _ to you. When people keep telling you you’re the bad guy, you get the urge to just dip your toes in that water and see what it’s  _ really _ like to be the bad guy. That was when I also realized that, hey, we’re never going to get this fixed,  _ but _ I could at least bring myself and Tad into the real world instead. I came up with the idea for the portal and all that, and started harassing you humans, as well as other a few other species. Turns out I’m a good liar and manipulator, y’know? I got _ real _ into it and was enjoying myself for the first time in a long, _ long _ time. Tad wasn’t a huge fan of it, not at  _ all _ , but fuck him.”

“And you really  _ did _ fuck him over,” Ford said.

Bill frowned.

“It was a little more than just that,” he murmured. “After a couple hundred years or so- I didn’t exactly have a great concept of time back then-, I met  _ him _ . Big frilly, Axie, the big guy- you know who. You see, he finally answered Tad and I’s call to fix our mistake, but with a twist: a different form, a different time. I’d have to give up my current form and be stuck in whatever meatsack he wanted me in, and whenever and wherever he wanted me to be. We would just get a second chance with a new life, not an actual solution, which sounded like a heap of horseshit to me. I already had my portal business going, so I, of course, said no… but he still decided to put that curse on me, so whenever I said his name, I’d go up on his offer.

“Of course, Tad was  _ livid _ about that. He told me how selfish I had became and that I was just as bad as everyone had made me out to be. I was so frustrated with him at that point that I just… decided to trap him in a human body instead, since that’s what he wanted from the Axolotl anyways. That meatsack was practically immortal- he just couldn’t die of old age and was pretty resistant to illness as long as he tended to himself. I… I meant to actually let him go at one point, but… I never got around to it.”

“You’re a monster,” Ford muttered, his face twisted with disgust. “He wanted to help you and all you did was stab him in the back after all he did for you.”

“ _ You _ don’t know what that was like,” Bill retorted. “I-I had to put up with  _ so much _ for hundreds and hundreds and _ hundreds  _ of years. I tried to do what was right, but that it isn’t always the answer. I’d like to see you try to stay Goody Two-shoes after being told for _ centuries _ that you’re a terrible person all because you made one mistake.”

Ford huffed. “Bill, I’ll admit that I’ll never know what that’s like, but I can tell you one thing: in the thirty years you had me trapped away from my family and my home, I had to make a lot of decisions. I was faced with dilemma after dilemma, and even when they would make my life a hell out a lot easier, if they went against my morals, I wouldn’t do it. I would never _ever_ even risk another being’s life just because it made mine easier. And I’ll admit, I haven’t always made the best decisions and I’ve screwed up a _lot_ , but not as much as you have. I didn’t destroy and end people’s _lives_. I didn’t almost end the fucking world. I didn’t manipulate and mentally scar someone to the point that they were _delusional_ and _hallucinating_. I didn’t steal _thirty years_ of their life away from them and keep them away from the family they could’ve been with!”

Ford had stepped closer, forcing Bill to stumble back and bump the back of his legs up against the lounge chair. Gabe had dragged himself and Dipper farther back from the scene, and so had Mabel and her friends. Stan had stood up from the table, ready to rush over and break the two apart at any moment. 

“I was forced to do the things I had to do! I had no other choice!” Bill shouted, his voice breaking even more at this point. “I-I didn’t want to but I  _ had _ to! What else was I supposed to do, give up? _ Die _ ? I wanted to live and prosper because if my species couldn’t, at least _ I  _ could!” 

“You do realize how selfish you sound, right?” Ford replied, nearly laughing at how ridiculous he thought Bill was being. “Bill, you should’ve just lived with your mistakes and moved on instead of trying to fix them. You ruined your own life because you couldn’t just admit defeat and say you fucked up!”

“You would’ve done the same thing if you were in my situation-”

“No, I wouldn’t have-”

“Then you’re a fucking liar, too!” Bill snapped. “I-It is more than just admitting that you fucked up, Stanford. It is having to live with the regret and shame of having the knowledge that you killed everyone you ever knew and loved, and then not remembering a  _ thing _ about them because you feel so guilty!”

That made Ford hesitate.

“I felt so bad about what I did that I just blocked it all out, and now, I don’t remember  _ anything _ about my species!” Bill had the biggest grin plastered on his face, but it was so forced and pained. “I suppressed all the memories of everyone I ever knew, including my friends and family, all because I felt so guilty and ashamed of myself! I-I don’t even remember my old name, how many friends I had, what my parents looked like, or even if I had any siblings! I don’t know  _ anything _ !”

Bill was trembling from head to toe. His voice was quivering and Dipper could see tears in his eye that he was fighting so hard to hold back. He looked absolutely and utterly pathetic and he must’ve been aware of it, but too caught up in the moment to try to pull himself together. It was almost gut-wrenching to witness.

“Oh, don’t give me your fucking sob story,” Ford snapped.

That seemed to set something off in Bill because one of the fists that he had at his side suddenly swung up to collide with Ford’s face. Dipper expected Stanford to catch it, but he didn’t and was punched at full-force in the nose, causing him to stumble back. Bill had turned from looking pathetic and cowardly to a terrifying, emotional mess. His teeth were gritted together like a wild animal and his eye was full of rage, but as Ford got back up and charged right back at him, Dipper noticed the fear in Bill’s eye. He knew he had fucked up.

Ford easily slammed down the much smaller and punier Bill onto the lounge chair by his thin arms. He left little room between their faces as he leaned forward.

“You can’t act like you’re the victim in this situation because you  _ aren’t _ , Bill,” Ford snarled. “You  _ are  _ the bad guy! Maybe you weren’t originally, but you  _ definitely _ are now. You had the choice to step up and prove people wrong, but instead you proved them right. How the  _ hell  _ do you justify that? You could have been the good guy and done good things but instead you turned into the villian. You’re just a shitty person who made shitty decisions and destroyed and ruined people’s  _ lives _ . You need to fucking admit it instead of acting like this high and mighty god that you  _ aren’t _ !”

Dipper watched as Bill stared at Ford for a good while, taking in what he had said. His heart twisted as he saw Bill finally start to break down and sob. He began to kick against Ford’s stomach with his feet that were fortunately just wearing socks and not shoes. After a good while of Bill pathetically and desperately battering against Ford, trying to push him off, Stan tore Ford off him and shouted, “Ford, that is  _ enough _ !”

Ford immediately started aggressively arguing with Stanley, clearly still heated up from his “talk” with Bill. Dipper was watching them for a bit until he saw Bill scramble up and off the lounge chair. He was already running across the room to escape to the gift shop within seconds.

“Wait!  _ Wait _ , Bill!” Dipper exclaimed, jumping up from the floor and out of Gabe’s grasp. “ _ Bill _ !”

“What? Oh- oh,  _ shit _ ,” Ford hissed as he realized that Bill was now gone. “Shit, he might try to escape! We need to go get him-”

Stan immediately shoved Ford back as he tried to go for the door.

“Do you _ really  _ think he’s going to come back if  _ you’re _ the one calling for him after all of  _ that _ ?” Stan sharply pointed out. Ford had no reply for that. “Dipper, go with Mabel and Wendy and see if you guys can find him. Ford, you’re going to stay right here and we’re going to have a nice, long talk.”

Ford stammered over his words, but Dipper wasted no time helping Mabel up to her feet and leaving the room with her and Wendy. He noticed that both of the girls were also shaken up by what had just happened, which validated his own nervousness. He grabbed his sister’s hand, hoping to offer a bit of comfort to her as well as to himself.

“He went downstairs,” Wendy said with relief as she saw that the vending machine was revealing the stairway to the basement. Bill hadn’t bothered to close it. “Thank God.”

“Let’s double check that,” Mabel softly suggested.

Dipper nodded in agreement before the three of them headed downstairs. They were all silent the whole way down. They eventually found themselves in front of Bill’s bathroom, but the door wasn’t completely shut. It was ever so slightly cracked open to where you could see a bit of light from the room creeping out and hear that Bill was in there, loudly crying and hyperventilating. 

Dipper stepped forward to open the door, but Mabel grabbed his hand and pulled him back. She shook her head and whispered, “We should let him come out on his own terms. I… think that’s what he would want right now. We can check on him later.”

The brunette stared at the door for a moment, just continuing to listen to Bill violently sobbing. It was practically a natural instinct for him to want to check on someone if they were crying, but he supposed Mabel was right. He reluctantly nodded in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof i DID IT its DONE  
> hope it was worth the wait!!


	24. Chapter 24

For once, Bill didn’t jolt awake because of a bad dream or because one of the kids had opened the door to bring him food. He had just woken up out of his own accord, which was normally a good thing for him, as it meant he got all the sleep his body had wanted, but right now, he wished he was still asleep.

Bill felt like shit, both emotionally and physically. He felt this awful weight of just… sadness on him. Plus, the left side of his face was stained with tears and his sinuses hurt from crying so much. He viciously rubbed his face to try to get the pain and feeling of dried tears to go away, as well as to distract himself from remembering what had happened earlier. He tried his best to not think about it, but it was just there, lingering in his subconscious as some kind of sick reminder. 

Bill sniffled and turned to see that the door was still cracked open. None of the Pines closed and locked it, like he had expected them too, which he found odd. Bill slowly got up to his feet and trudged towards the door. He hesitantly pushed it open, but felt something weighing against it. He opened it just enough to stick his head out and was surprised to see a familiar brunette slumped against the door, asleep.

“Pine Tree?” Bill muttered.

The kid almost immediately woke up as he heard his nickname. He looked around for a second before finally looking up to see Bill. His eyes widened before gently saying, “Bill! H-hey, man.”

“What are you doing here?” Bill grumbled.

“I, uh, wanted to check on you,” Dipper hesitantly said. He still sounded groggy with sleep. “B-but I wanted to wait till you were ready to come out, so I decided to stay down and here and then then I just kinda… fell asleep, waiting for you.”

“What time is it?” Bill asked.

The brunette scrambled to grab his phone from his pocket before answering, “Uh… 3:38 AM?”

“Oh, boy,” Bill muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“T-the others went home, and Ford went to Fiddleford’s,” Dipper informed him. “So, you don’t have to worry about anyone if you want to come upstairs with me.”

Bill hesitated and thought about his options for a moment. He felt exhausted in every shape and form and  _ really  _ didn’t want to have to go up the stairs currently, but still wanted the presence of another person around to serve as a distraction from his thoughts.

“Can you… can I just sit with you for a bit?” Bill finally decided.

“Yeah, of course, man,” the brunette told him with a smile.

Pine Tree scooted over a bit to give Bill space to sit next to him. Bill kept a comfortable amount of room between them, but their knees were still almost touching and Bill could feel the warmth coming off of the kid’s body. There was a good minute or so of them sitting there in silence before Pine Tree spoke up.

“So, um…” He twiddled his thumbs together nervously. “Do you… want to talk about anything?”

Bill opened his mouth to say no. “I don’t know.”

“That’s okay,” Dipper softly told him. “I-is there anything I can get you? Or do for you?”

Bill opened his mouth to say that he wanted Pine Tree to just kill him, that all he wanted was to be dead, that death would be a fucking  _ gift _ to him right now. “Just… stay here with me. Please.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Dipper reassured him. “Do… do you want a hug or something? Are you okay with being touched in general right now?”

_ The only type of physical contact I want is the violent type- _ “A hug sounds good, I guess.”

Bill found himself resting his face on Dipper’s shoulder and his arms tightly wrapped around the kid. The hug was so comforting and the mere thought of how nice it was made Bill realize how much he didn’t deserve it. Bill screwed his eye shut, trying to just block out his thoughts, but it was no use.

Sixer’s words kept ringing in his head. He had always known subconsciously that he was terrible- hell, he’d heard it about a million times from a million people- but hearing it from someone who knew all the context made it so much worse. It just confirmed what he had always known.

Bill didn’t know when he had started, but he was now sobbing into Dipper’s shoulder. The brunette tried shushing him and ran his fingers up and down his back, but Bill was absolutely inconsolable. He was muttering nonsense at this point, trying to articulate his thoughts to tell someone,  _ anyone _ , what was going on in his head.

“I… haven’t thought of this in  _ y-years _ ,” Bill managed to say in between hiccups. “I-I didn’t want to think about it- I don’t  _ ever _ want to think about it…”

“That’s understandable,” Dipper murmured, still rubbing his back. “You don’t have to think about it right now if you don’t want to.”

“I can’t  _ help it _ . I-it won’t  _ stop _ ,” Bill choked out, a little more aggressively than he intended. “I hate this, I don’t want to do this anymore- I don’t want to be here anymore- why didn’t Sixer just kill me? I hate this, I  _ hate _ this…”

“Bill, remember what I told you to do that one day at the store?” Pine Tree suddenly said, pulling back to look Bill in the eye. He reluctantly nodded and desperately tried to wipe the tears off of his face, not wanting to look so pitiful in front of another living being. “Can you try to do it again? I think it would help.”

Bill blinked and twisted his face for a second has he tried to recall exactly what Pine Tree had told him to do that day. He inhaled, held it for a moment, and exhaled again. His breaths were shaky, but he was managing and the small comments of encouragement from the kid made him feel a bit better.

Bill let out a sigh after he felt that the breathing exercise had done its job. “Tonight’s been terrible.”

Pine Tree seemed to not help but smile at that. “That’s one way to put it.”

“Fuck Ford,” Bill grumbled. He then laid down in Dipper’s lap, not caring at all about how pathetic he looked anymore. As he curled up in the brunette’s lap, Bill caught a glimpse of the bracelet he had made him on his wrist. He couldn’t believe he was still wearing it. “Why are you still here, anyways? You heard all of that, didn’t you? You should be cowering from me like the monster I am.”

“I don’t think you’re a monster, Bill,” Pine Tree told him. He started running his fingers through Bill’s hair.

Bill glanced up at Dipper and narrowed his eye. “Oh, so I’m a good guy, then?”

“W-well… no,” Pine Tree hesitant replied, avoiding eye-contact. “It’s complicated, and I’m not really sure you want to hear all about it right now.”

Bill simply snorted at that.

The two boys sat there for a few minutes, with Bill casually draping himself across Dipper’s lap as the other continued to play with his hair. The blonde felt his eye growing heavy with sleep, which he was grateful for. He was tired of being awake and conscious.

Pine Tree seemed to notice that Bill was falling asleep and spoke up about it. “Why don’t you come sleep upstairs with me and Mabel tonight?”

“Sixer isn’t going to be happy about that,” Bill mumbled, not bothering to look up at him.

“I’ll talk to him about it if he says anything,” the brunette reassured him. “Don’t worry about him, okay? You need to focus on just getting some rest right now. You’ll be able to process all of this better once you get some sleep.”

Bill would have argued with that, but sleeping in a bed instead of on the floor with a blanket sounded  _ really _ nice. He had only slept in Shooting Star’s bed once and that had been the best night of sleep he had ever gotten.

“M’okay,” he mumbled as he sat up. 

Pine Tree stood up and helped Bill to his feet as well. The brunette lead him upstairs into the pitchblack gift shop. The kid had to pull out his phone and turn on the flashlight to lead them through the house, as every light was off. The only source of light that was provided was the little moonlight that crept through the windows. 

Bill let out a little huff of relief as they entered the twins’ bedroom. Shooting Star looked like she was asleep, but as Pine Tree shut the door behind them, she rolled over and sat up to look at them. Bill had never felt so happy to see her in his whole life.

“Hey, Bill,” she tiredly greeted him.

Bill smiled and made his way over to her bed. “Heya, kiddo.”

Shooting Star scooted over and pat the bed for him to get in. Bill didn’t hesitate at all and crawled in with her. She immediately wrapped her arms around him and rested her head under his chin.

“You need a good cuddle right now,” she softly said. “Lucky for you I’m the best cuddler in the whole world.”

Bill couldn’t help but grin and chuckle at that. He draped an arm over her and happily settled into their position. Within about ten minutes, she was fast asleep. And a few minutes after that, Bill felt the bed shift and the covers move as Pine Tree also crawled into bed with them. He pressed his back up against Bill’s, and eventually fell asleep as well.

Bill blinked and took a couple of minutes to take in the moment. These two kids knew everything he had done, every awful, _ terrible _ thing he had done, and yet… here they were, cuddling up with him in bed. They weren’t doing this out of fear, in fact, they hadn’t seemed afraid of him at all so far. He wasn’t for sure if it was just pity, or out of pure kindness or forgiveness, but he liked it. He felt safe and warm and cared for.

What the hell did he do to deserve this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i probs shouldnt be posting yet bc i need to have more chapters prewritten but Oh Well  
> anyways i drew a kind of cover for this fic that u can check out here: https://sigh-fur.tumblr.com/post/170125535378/a-cover-for-my-fanfic-that-u-can-check-out-here !! just something i did for fun and im happy w/ how it turned out  
> BUT speaking of drawing for this fanfic, i wanna draw some scenes from reformed, but im not sure which ones so if yall have any recommendations let me know! u can either comment here or drop an ask on my tumblr uwu  
> as always thanks so much for all of your support! it means the world to me <3


	25. Chapter 25

_ January 20th,  _

_ Grunkle Ford apologized again this morning about the whole thing with Bill, even though it’s been over three weeks since it happened now. I forgive him, we all do and we’ve told him that, but he still feels bad. His apology did remind me to write an update about Bill, though. _

_ He’s been sleeping in our bedroom with us since that night. He switches off between sleeping in my bed or Mabel’s, and, fortunately, it’s been working out pretty well for all of us. He’s also stayed in our room for the most part of the last three weeks, which isn’t entirely good for him if you ask me. He only leaves to take a shower or use the bathroom, or when he knows no one else is home, then he’ll go downstairs to watch TV or stare out the kitchen window. _

_ But because he’s confined himself almost completely to our room, I’ve started letting him use my laptop- which, I know, probably isn’t the smartest idea but he’d be bored out of his mind without it. I monitor his internet use, though, just to make sure he’s not looking up how to build a bomb or something like that. He mostly just watches dumb internet videos that Mabel recommends for him, or documentaries that I thought he might like. He also likes reading the books I have, so he’s been pretty well occupied and entertained while we’re at school. _

_ He’s still pretty quiet and hasn’t really spoken a word about that night. If I’m being honest, I worry about him a lot. I catch him staring off a lot like he’s thinking about something, and I can take a pretty good guess at what that something is, and I swear I’ve heard him have a few nightmares now, too. He twitches in his sleep, and then wakes up and is borderline hyperventilating… then he just sits there with his head in his hands. Whenever I try to ask him what’s wrong (or Mabel asks him, because she’s caught him a few times, too), he gives me some half-assed excuse, turns his back towards me, and immediately tries to go back to sleep. _

_ I know he’d never admit to another living soul, but what happened that night clearly… messed with Bill. I want to use the word traumatized, but I’m not sure if I should… plus, this sounds like a thing of past trauma coming up to haunt him rather than just that event traumatizing him. But either way, I know how this kind of stuff works, and I see a lot of it in Bill. It sure as hell has made me feel a lot worse for the guy, even IF he’s done all that terrible stuff. He has to feel bad for at least some of it if he’s acting like this. _

_ Anyways, I’ve kind of decided that Bill’s done enough sulking around. I’m sure he feels like shit, and it’s starting to show, too. I don’t want him to feel like that anymore, so…  _

_ I think I’m going to have a talk with him today. _

“Hey, here’s my keys. Mabel said you wanted to borrow my truck.”

Dipper looked up from his journal to catch the keys Wendy tossed to him. He caught them and put them in his pocket before shutting his journal. He stood up from the kitchen table and smiled at her. “Thanks, Wendy.”

“What do you need my truck for anyways?” she asked, leaning on the doorway. “Taking Gabe out on a date?” 

Dipper snickered. “No- though, that’s not a bad idea! I’m, uh… actually planning on taking Bill out for a drive.”

“Oh, so you’re taking _ Bill _ on a date.”

“Gross, no!” Dipper exclaimed, though still smiling. “I’m just planning on having a talk with him… I think he needs one.”

Wendy’s eyebrows furrowed together upon hearing that. “Are you  _ sure _ that’s a good idea? I mean… what if he acts the same way he did with Ford but with you?”

“I’ve given him almost a whole month to think about this now. I would hope that would’ve had enough time to gather his thoughts about it by now,” Dipper replied. “Plus, he likes me more than Ford, and I’m not going to handle it the way Ford did. I think it’ll be okay.”

“Hey, well, just don’t let any fight you two get into to destroy my truck, okay?” the redhead said with a grin.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to crash into only a few things for you,” Dipper retorted, earning a playful shove from her.

Dipper became distracted as he saw Mabel coming down the stairs with Bill trailing along behind her. He had just taken a shower by the look of his clean hair, which was good because he doubted Wendy wanted a dirty, greasy Bill in her car. Dipper was thankful that Stan was helping Soos with tours today and that Ford was at Fiddleford’s (he had been spending a lot of time over there, lately) so that Bill felt comfortable enough to venture downstairs.

“Yo, Cipher,” Wendy called as she saw the blonde. “Dipper’s taking you on a hot date.”

Dipper punched her in the arm, earning a loud laugh from her.

“Oh, won’t puppet-fucker be jealous, though?” Bill said with a grin. “I’d  _ hate _ to stir up some drama between you two love-birds.”

Bill seemed to be in a good enough mood to crack some jokes to Dipper’s relief. Maybe this would go over better than he had planned.

“But, really, what’s she talking about, kid?” Bill suddenly asked in a low-voice aimed at the brunette.

“I thought it might do you some good if you got out of the house for a bit, so I thought I’d take you for a ride around town,” Dipper explained with a shrug.

Bill seemed suspicious, but clearly not suspicious enough to say something as he remained silent.

“Well, you’ll need a jacket if you’re headed outside!” Mabel chirped. “I think I have one that you could use!”

“Oh, Mabel, if you’re headed upstairs, could you put my journal away for me, too?” Dipper asked, offering the book to her.

“Sure, bro-bro,” she happily said, taking the book before scurrying off.

Bill had eyed the book before she left, commenting, “Like father, like son, huh?”

Dipper rolled his eyes. He then turned around to grab his jacket off the coat rack. He slipped it on, and patiently waited for Mabel to rush downstairs with a coat for Bill. It was a black peacoat that fit him pretty well. Dipper had absolutely no clue where she had got it from, though. This was the first time he had seen it, but, then again, Dipper had experienced the same thing with many articles of clothing Mabel had. Her collection seemed to be ever expanding.

“Be careful with my truck, alright?” Wendy said with a smile. “I’ll see you when you get back.”

Dipper gave her a nod of acknowledgement before she turned around and left. Mabel told the two to have fun before chasing after Wendy to follow her to the gift shop. The two of them stood there awkwardly for a moment before Dipper lead Bill outside to Wendy’s red truck.

Dipper turned the heater on high and tried to warm up for a moment before he started driving. Bill stayed quiet the whole time, even after they had started driving. The silence was getting to Dipper, so he turned on the radio to some pop station to try to make things less awkward.

Dipper drove around town, taking every street he knew of and driving past familiar locations. He kept waiting for Bill to say something,  _ anything _ , but he didn’t. Dipper became worried that Bill knew what he had in mind.

After Dipper drove past the grocery store for the second time, he decided to turn around and pull into the parking lot. 

“What are we doing?” Bill immediately asked as Dipper parked. He sounded a little frantic, if Dipper was being honest.

“Uh, Mabel mentioned the other day that she wanted to make hot chocolate so I’m gonna get her some stuff to make it,” Dipper explained and unbuckled his seatbelt. “You can stay in here. I’ll keep the car running so you’ll stay warm. I won’t be gone that long at all.”

Though Bill nodded and seemed to comply with the situation, Dipper could see how tense he was.

Dipper was fast about finding what he needed and checking out. As he did, he kept reciting in his head what he wanted to say to Bill, but could never get it right. He hoped that it would come out better out loud. Messing this up could have some serious consequences that Dipper didn’t exactly what to think about.

Bill didn’t say anything when Dipper jumped back in the car and continued his silence as they kept driving. Dipper eventually decided exactly where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do.

He ended up driving near the woods and, though it took him a moment, found the path he wanted to take. It was a bit off-road and bumpy since it wasn’t an actual road and really more a dirt path, but Wendy’s truck handled it well. Dipper eventually came to the end of the trail which was a small clearing in the woods which was probably meant for camping or a picnic. It was too cold outside for either activities, so the area was fortunately vacant. 

Dipper saw Bill tense up out of the corner of his eye as he parked and turned down the music. The brunette sat there for a bit, staring at his lap.

“So,” Dipper awkwardly began. “I, um… wanted to talk to.”  
Bill let out a groan. He leaned his head back and covered his face with his hands. “Oh, _God_ , I _knew_ this was going to happen.”

“I’m gonna try to make this as painless and not awkward as possible,” Dipper reassured him. “I know you’re probably not going to like it, but we need to talk, okay?”

Bill kept his position for minute or two before leaning forward and letting out a huff. 

“I don’t need to hear whatever you have to say, Pine Tree,” Bill mumbled. He turned his back to Dipper. “Sixer covered it pretty well. I’m a piece of shit who deserves nothing. I get it now. Nothing more needs to be said on the matter.”

“Actually, a  _ lot  _ more needs to be said about that,” Dipper replied. “Do you remember what I said about you not being a monster, but also not being a good person?”

The blonde didn’t reply, but he wasn’t saying no, so Dipper kept going.

“Bill, I know that right now you’re really convinced that you’re the worst person alive, but you’re really not,” Dipper said. Bill glanced over his shoulder at Dipper.  _ That _ seemed to catch his attention finally. “I don’t think you realize that actually admitting that you’ve done bad things makes you a bit of a better person. You’re self-aware and… that’s a hard thing for a lot of people to do.”

Bill still hadn’t turned to face Dipper, but was clearly still listening to him. It was enough for Dipper to keep going, though.

“I’ve known a lot of people who have done bad things, Bill, and there’s no denying that the stuff they did was bad,” Dipper continued. “I mean, Pacifica used to the biggest bitch ever, and Gideon was… well, _ Gideon _ , but now they’re practically family to me… but that doesn’t erase what they did. Pacifica treated Mabel  _ terribly _ , and she was just a mean and selfish person in general, and Gideon tried to ruin our lives and even tried to _ kill _ me. Trust me when I say I haven’t forgotten about any of that. But, you know what? They eventually realized that what they did was wrong and came to terms with it. They had to admit that they weren’t good people and apologize to those they hurt, and they did, and now they’re my family.”

Dipper paused for a moment. “What I’m trying to say is that you’re already on the path to being a good guy, Bill. I’m not kidding when I say it’s really,  _ really _ hard to admit what you’re admitting. The path to redemption isn’t easy, not at all, but yet, here you are: able to admit you did some shitty things and that you aren’t a great person. Bill, that’s… that’s something.”

“Gideon and Pacifica didn’t kill their whole species, betray the only person that ever believed in them, ruin thousands of lives, steal thirty years of a man’s life away from him, try to kill his niece and nephew, end the world, and give his brother amnesia,” Bill spat. It caught Dipper off guard. “How the hell do you compare those two scenarios? Those two did petty crimes compared to what I did. How the hell is anyone supposed to forgive me after I did all of that?”

“It’s not always a thing of forgiveness, Bill,” Dipper calmly replied. “Sometimes, you have to just… accept that someone has changed and move on from it. If I’m being honest, I still don’t really ‘forgive’ Gideon for a lot of the things he did, but we came to terms with it and moved on with our lives as friends. Yeah, a lot of the things you did may be hard, or even  _ impossible _ , to forgive, but I think at least Mabel and I would want to move on.”

Dipper paused, waiting for Bill to say something, but he didn’t. Dipper sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Bill, what I’m trying to get at it here is that I  _ want _ to be able to move past this with you,” he continued. “I  _ like _ you, Bill. I think you’re funny and you can be nice sometimes, and I would go as far to say that you’re my friend. I want you to know that you’re not as bad as you think you are, and that you  _ can  _ move on from all the bad things you did. Yeah, it won’t be easy and I’m sure you’ll feel embarrassed or ashamed about it sometimes, but I think you can do it… and I’ll be here for you, okay? I believe in you.”

Bill finally turned around to meet Dipper’s gaze. Dipper offered him a small smile, and tried to figure out how the other was feeling. His expression didn’t show much. He looked tired and miserable, but that was how he almost always looked nowadays. He didn’t say a word or give Dipper much information at all about what he was thinking or feeling.

Dipper turned his gaze away to put the car back into drive. “Y-you don’t have to say anything right now, but if you ever want to talk to me about this, or anything at all, don’t be afraid to ask. You can talk to Mabel about it, if you want, but just keep in mind that she sometimes tells you what you  _ want _ to hear and not what you  _ need _ to hear.”

Once again, Bill was stared out the window and was silent for the entirety of the ride back home. Dipper had parked and turned off the car and had just opened his door when Bill spoke up.

“Hey, Pine Tree?”

Dipper’s heart skipped a beat. He looked up at Bill who was just about to get out of the car too.

“Yeah?” he replied, his voice unfortunately cracking a bit. 

Bill refused to look him the eyes. “Um… thanks.”

Dipper felt a rush of relief wash over him. He smiled. “Of course, man.”

Once the two got inside, Dipper found Mabel in the living room and gave her the items she needed to make hot chocolate. The three of them ended up all chipping in to making it together and eventually drinking it while watching TV.

As Dipper gazed at Bill, he noticed that he looked a little less miserable now. He had been more involved in conversations that night and didn’t seem to stare off as much.

Dipper had a feeling that things were going to turn out alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hachi machi i finally got this god forsaken chapter done  
> so im just gonna go through my usual spiel very quickly: thank u guys SO MUCH for all your support! i know my sporadic and random schedule of uploading is annoying at times, so the fact that yall are so damn patient means so much to me!  
> and a quick update on personal life stuff: im Struggling a bit at the moment and im trying my best to Survive, which also means writing is hard and balancing my time between writing and literally everything else i do is getting increasingly difficult, but im managing!! just a general rule of thumb, if i dont post for a long while you get a little worried that its more than just the usual time it takes for me to write a chapter, you can always check my tumblr (a-gaybee.tumblr.com). if anything happens that Majorly Affects my internet usage or me just posting in general, ill post about it over there! but for now, it hopefully shouldnt come to that!  
> thanks again for all your support!! <333


	26. Chapter 26

Bill thought being human in general was miserable, but it was _paradise_ compared to being a _sick_ human.

It had started out with a small cough, which he hadn’t thought much of, but it quickly grew into a sore throat and runny nose. Coughing hurt and was beyond annoying. He couldn’t breathe through his nose, so he had to breath through his mouth, which hurt his sore throat. Sneezing was _gross_ , and he had rubbed his nose raw with tissues. In summary, Bill was _miserable_.

Apparently, there had been a cold going around the high school, and though neither of the twins had caught it, they had brought the germs home with them. Bill was _pissed_ when he found out they were the reason he was sick. They told him that he needed to stop complaining and just focus on getting better instead, and, _apparently_ , getting better meant taking a lot of medicine, laying in bed, and being miserable (“Though, that’s not much different than what you normally do,” Pine Tree had muttered, which resulted in Bill chucking a tissue box at his head).

Bill let out a groan as he had become bored of all the videos and movies he had been watching. He wasn’t allowed to sleep in either of the kids’ beds in fear that they would get sick too, so he had been banished to a sleeping bag on the floor until he got better. He still used Pine Tree’s laptop, though, and hoped that at least that bit of contact would get him sick. He didn’t think it was fair that he got this horrible cold and they didn’t, so he was hellbound on returning the favor.

Speaking of the twins, they were out for the night with their respective partners, and Sixer and Glasses. It was Valentine’s Day, and Shooting Star decided have a “triple date” (her words, not Bill’s) at a nice restaurant. She had wanted to take Bill with them, but he couldn’t now because of his cold, as well as Sixer had denied that request even before he got sick.

Bill shut Pine Tree’s laptop and then forced himself up to his feet. Maybe he could find another form of entertainment downstairs. He wasn’t really sure who was home, but he guess he’d find out. Maybe if he was lucky enough, the kids would be home by now. They had been gone for quite a while, after all.

It was pretty quiet as Bill came down the stairs besides a bit of noise in the kitchen. He hesitantly stepped in the room to see Fez doing dishes. Ice-Bag was sitting at the kitchen table browsing through her phone, while baby Lee was sitting in her lap, dozing off. Nothing too interesting, to Bill’s disappointment.

“What brings you down to the land of the living?” the red-head greeted him and chuckled. Bill rolled his eye.

“I’m bored,” he muttered before wandering over to take a seat at the table.

“Well, do you want to lend me a hand with the dishes then?” Fez suggested, looking over his shoulder at the blonde. “Make yourself useful for once?”

“Oh, yeah, _sure_ ,” Bill said with a grin. “Let me get my gross, _sick_ hands all over what you _eat_ with.”

“Yeah, don’t let him touch those dishes, Stan,” Ice-Bag spoke, not removing her gaze from her phone. “Last thing we need is to get sick, too.”

Fez rolled his eyes and then returned his attention to the plate he was cleaning. Bill had a small coughing fit before casually asking, “Why are either of you home, anyways? I thought you’d also have plans for this dumb holiday.”

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Wendy and I are both single,” Stan nonchalantly replied. “Plus, someone’s gotta watch Lee for Soos and Melody. They deserve a break from parenthood for at least one night.”

“Little brat’s a handful, huh?” Bill murmured, looking over at the kid.

“He’s actually pretty well-behaved for a baby. Being parents in general is just tiring,” Stan explained and shrugged.

Bill’s gaze landed back on Fez again and his eye narrowed.

“You’re talking to me so _casually_ ,” Bill commented. It was a thought that he should’ve kept to himself in hindsight, but he was just too curious. “Why? Why aren’t you… _scared_ of me? You should at least be mad at me, but you act like I’m just… some any other human.”

“Why should I be scared of you?” Stan replied and lifted one of his eyebrows. “Kid, you’re built like a twig. If I ever felt like I was threatened by you, I’d just snap you in half.”

“Yeah, dude, you look like you weigh nothing,” Wendy added and grinned. “I’m sure even Gleeful could kick your ass.”

Bill snorted. “Well, now you’re just being insulting.”

Fortunately, Bill suddenly heard someone opening the door in the foyer. He perked up and turned around as the kids entered the kitchen. Llama, that puppet kid, Sixer, and Glasses were there, too. Fortunately, Llama and Puppet-Boy seemed to be involved in their own conversation, and Sixer had guided Glasses over to Wendy to say hi to Lee. Mabel met eyes with him and smiled. She was probably happy to see him downstairs for once.

“Hi, Bill!” she exclaimed, prancing over to take a seat next to him. “Still feeling sick?”

Bill reluctantly nodded and sniffled. “Yeah.”

“Aw, I was hoping you’d start feeling better by now,” she said with a pout. “Being sick isn’t any fun.”

“You’re telling me,” he retorted and rolled his eye.

“Hey, Bill,” Pine Tree suddenly said, gaining his attention. Bill looked up at him right as the kid placed a grocery bag in his lap. “Here you go. Mabel said you had a sweet tooth so we got these for you on the way home.”

Bill cautiously looked into the bag but lit up as he saw what was inside: bags of assorted candy. He hadn’t had much candy since he turned him, but the few times he had been able to have it, he _loved_ it.

“Oh, sweet!” he chirped. “Thanks, you two.”

“Just don’t eat it all at once, alright?” Pine Tree warned him, but was still smiling. “I don’t want to know what you’re like on a sugar rush.”

Bill opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by his own coughing fit. It went on for a good couple of seconds before eventually stopping. Bill grumbled and rubbed his throat. He looked up as he felt Mabel place her hand on his knee. She offered him a sympathetic gaze.

“Oh, wow, you really _are_ sick,” Llama suddenly said. Bill stared at her. He had almost completely forgotten that the others were there. “I thought you were just faking it for attention.”

“The problem with that is I don’t go out of my way for attention, unlike you,” he growled.

“Watch it, Cipher,” Fez suddenly warned. Bill glared at him and opened his mouth to argue, but realized it wasn’t worth it. He instead opened one of the bags of the candy and began to eat from it. Can’t say something stupid to get you knocked out if you have your mouth full.

“The only good thing about this dumb holiday,” Bill grumbled as he pulled the wrapping off another piece of candy. “What’s even the point of it besides wasting money?”

“I think you’d probably find it more useful if you had a significant other,” Mabel gladly explained.

“Oh boy, another pointless concept,” Bill said and rolled his eye.

“Love isn’t a pointless concept! Love is great!” Mabel protested.

Bill narrowed his eye. “Wasting all your time on someone that’s just going to cause you pain when they eventually break up with you or die? Sounds _delightful._ ”

“ _God_ , you’re so pessimistic,” Pine Tree muttered and pinched the bridge of his nose. Bill shrugged.

“Yeah, you focus too much on the bad things, Bill. There’s plenty of great things about being in love!” Mabel chirped. “The feeling of falling in love with someone is… indescribable. It’s kind of the same feeling you get when you really like your friend, but even better! You feel like you have butterflies in your stomach and your heart beats so fast around them. It’s like the adrenaline you get from riding a rollercoaster! And it gets even better when you are actually dating them! Everything just gets better from there. You just want to protect them and hold them and make sure the world knows their yours!”

“Hey, Mabel?” Llama suddenly spoke up from the entry way. She had a big smile on her face. “You’re adorable. I love you.”

“I love you too!” Mabel excitedly replied.

“Maybe that’s just not for me,” Bill then said with a shrug.

“Hey, to each their own, man,” Dipper admitted, leaning onto the back of Bill’s chair.

Bill then sneezed and groaned as it reminded him how miserable he felt. He rubbed his head, stood up, and grumbled, “I think I’m going to go lay back down.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Dipper murmured. “You need as much rest as you can get.”

“I’m probably going to be asleep by the time you come back upstairs, so, uh…” Bill hesitated as he remembered there were other people in the room. He lowered his voice a little. “Thanks for the candy, and goodnight.”

“Night, Bill,” Pine Tree replied as he sat down in the chair Bill had been occupying.

“Goodnight, Bill!” Shooting Star exclaimed. “I love you!”

Bill pushed past Llama and Puppet-Boy before exclaiming back, “Gross!”

He could hear Mabel laughing even as he reached the top of the stairs. He hesitated for a second as he heard it become a little quieter. Bill became intrigued again as he realized he could hear the conversation from downstairs. The floors and walls of the shack were thin, which made listening in on the others easy, as well as the Pines were naturally loud speakers.

“He was pretty well-behaved,” Glasses commented, sounding surprised.

 _Fuck you_ , Bill thought to himself.

“Maybe he _is_ getting better,” Ice-Bag added.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Sixer quickly said. “Just because he was a little more friendly than usual doesn’t mean he’s suddenly trustworthy.”

_Go fuck yourself, Sixer._

“He was kind of an asshole to Pacifica,” Gabe pointed out.

“He just needs some more time and space,” Dipper quickly replied. “He’ll get more comfortable around you guys eventually.”

Bill blinked. He didn’t expect Pine Tree to defend him. It was usually Shooting Star who immediately jumped to his defense, so it was a bit surprising to hear Pine Tree do it instead. That was… nice of him.

Bill expected to hear someone argue against Pine Tree, but flinched when all of a sudden he heard the shriek of baby Lee instead. Bill forgot how loud the toddler could be, and immediately retreated into the attic, slamming the door behind him.

The blonde crawled back into his sleeping bag on the floor and planned to go to sleep, but couldn’t help but keep staring at the bag of candy he left on nightstand. He also couldn’t stop thinking about the twins being so patient with him when all he was doing was being nihilistic, and how Pine Tree stood up for him.

“I really don’t deserve those, kids,” he murmured to himself.

His gaze then shifted over to Shooting Star’s bed. The kid’s pig was sitting there, staring down at him. He huffed.

“Don’t tell them I said that,” he growled.

Bill then turned his back to the pig and finally focused on falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi yall!  
> sorry for such the late update, i'd give the usual spiel but eh, excuses are excuses  
> thanks so much for your patience!


	27. Chapter 27

“Mind your own business, dipshit.”

“I’m literally just trying to make sure you’re okay. Why are you acting like I’m harassing you?”

“Because you are! Leave me alone!”

“You’re in  _ my _ room and  _ my _ bed! How am I supposed to ‘leave you alone’?”

“Go literally anywhere else!”

“ _ Guys _ !”

Dipper and Bill finally stopped arguing when Mabel spoke up. She jumped out of her bed and stormed over between the two of them.

“Stop fighting! This is so dumb,” she exclaimed. “Dipper, could you give me and Bill a moment alone? I’d like to talk to him.”

Bill crossed his arms and murmured, “Oh, boy. Here we go.”

Dipper paused and then sighed. “Okay, fine. Let me know if you need anything.”

Mabel offered him a smile before he turned and left the room. Dipper took a deep breath as he headed downstairs, trying to calm down a bit. He hated that he had let Bill get him so worked up to the point of raising his voice, but he was just that frustrating sometimes.

As Dipper reached the bottom of the stairs, he was surprised to see Ford standing in front of him.

“Oh, hi, Grunkle Ford,” he greeted him. “I thought you were still at McGucket’s.”

“I just got home,” Ford plainly replied. He was staring at the top of the stairs. “I heard Bill yelling. Is everything alright? Are you alright?”

“Bill’s just being pissy,” Dipper explained and shook his head. “I woke him up from a bad dream and wanted to know what it was about, and that set him off. Mabel’s talking to him right now. He tends to respond pretty well to her calming him down, so I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

Ford’s eyebrows drooped with worry. “You know we can have him stay in the basement again, right? He doesn’t have to sleep in your room, especially if he’s acting like that.”

“No, I-I think the attic is better for him,” Dipper admitted, walking past Ford into the kitchen. Ford followed behind him. “I think the basement isolates him too much, which makes him even more grumpy than he already is. He’s getting better, but he still has his moments-  _ especially _ with me. It’s just something we need to work on.”

Dipper opened the fridge and stared at it for a moment, trying to decide what he wanted.

“Are you  _ sure _ this is okay?” Ford pressed.

“Honestly, he’s a lot better in private than when he’s around the others,” Dipper explained as he pulled a Pitt Cola out of the fridge. “I just think he doesn’t like looking so soft around everyone else,  _ especially  _ you. In his eyes- well…  _ eye _ , being emotionally vulnerable or friendly is a sign of weakness, and Bill Cipher would  _ never  _ want to look weak.”

Ford sighed and softly said, “I just worry about you and Mabel’s safety with him around.”

Dipper took a sip of his drink and then paused.

“I’ll admit, I worry about our safety too sometimes, but I just… at this point, I think if he wanted to hurt us, he would’ve, y’know?” the brunette said.

Ford frowned and said, “Bill is very patient when it comes to stabbing people in the back, Dipper.”

Dipper opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated. He nervously toyed with the tab of his drink.

“Maybe I’m just being too optimistic, but Bill seems to be acting really… genuine. I just have a hard time imagining that he’s plotting to kill us,” he replied and sighed. “But I get where you’re coming from. I’m being careful. Trust me.”

There was a small pause in the conversation. Dipper stared at Ford and grew a bit worried as he saw the look on his face. He seemed pretty distressed about talking about Bill.

“How are you doing, by the way?” Dipper then asked, his voice cracking as he spoke. “I know this whole thing with Bill has been a lot, especially for you… and you’ve been spending a lot of time with McGucket lately-  _ not _ that that’s a bad thing! I just… I’m worried about you, too.”

Stanford’s eyes widened a bit before his gaze dared to the ground. He sighed.

“I’m alright. I will admit that night with Bill has… been on my mind a lot recently,” Ford said, leaning on the frame of the entryway. “Fiddleford has been helping me cope with it. It’s nice to talk to him about it since he was around when Bill was my muse. He gives me some unique insight and comfort when it comes to it.”

“We’re all here for you to if you need someone else to talk to, too,” Dipper told him with a smile.

“Thank you, Dipper.” Ford smiled back at him, but it slowly faded again. “I just still can’t believe how inappropriate my actions were that night. I… I let my trauma and pent-up anger get to me, I guess. I feel awful that I acted so  _ vengeful _ . I’m supposed to be bigger than Bill, but I sunk down to his level.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Dipper quickly said. “What happened, happened. Unfortunately, you can’t change those actions, but you can forgive yourself for them and move on. It’ll be okay. We forgive you. I… doubt Bill will, but he’ll get over it eventually. He can’t be bitter about this forever.”

“I’m not too worried about Bill’s forgiveness in this situation,” Ford muttered and crossed his arms.

Dipper was about to reply, but suddenly heard someone coming down the stairs. He looked behind Ford to see Mabel heading towards them, dragging Bill behind her. 

“Dipper, Bill has something he wants to tell you-”

“Sixer’s here!” Bill loudly whispered to Mabel, interrupting her. “I don’t want to-”

Mabel shoved Bill to stand in front of Dipper, which fortunately made the blonde shut up. “Bill, just tell Dipper what you were going to tell him.”

Bill let out a loud sigh and awkwardly made eye contact with Dipper. Bill looked like a disgruntled child who had just come out of time-out, which Dipper couldn’t help but smirk at.. Bill’s frown grew deeper when he noticed the half-smile on Dipper’s face.

“M’sorry for getting mad at you,” Bill murmured, slurring most of his sentence. His gaze dropped to the floor. “You’re just trying to help me and even if I don’t want that help, I shouldn’t yell at you like that. I’m sorry.”

It took a lot for Bill to admit that he was wrong, and even more to get an apology out of him, even if it was half-assed. Dipper knew this, so even though Bill didn’t seem that sorry, he’d take what he could get.

“It’s alright, Bill,” Dipper reassured him and smiled. “I forgive you.”

Bill seemed surprised to hear the word “forgive” and relaxed a bit. Dipper looked at his sister, who had a huge smile on her face and seemed very pleased with Bill’s apology.

“Happy?” Bill asked, turning his head to look at Mabel.

“Yep!” she chirped and linked arms with him. “I’m proud of you, Bill!”

Bill shook his head, but had a small smile on his face. He trudged behind Mabel as she left the kitchen, but stopped as he passed by Ford. The two stared at each other for a moment before Bill followed Mabel back up the stairs. There was a small moment of silence after that. 

“H-hey,” Dipper hesitantly began, trying to change the subject. “I was wondering if you wanted to play Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons tomorrow? I was thinking of setting up a campaign tonight. It’s been a while since we played.”

Ford finally looked at him again and lit up. “Sure. That sounds like fun.”

Dipper smiled. “Great! I’m going to go get started now. I’ll try to get it done by tomorrow morning.”  
“Don’t stay up all night, though! Try to get some rest,” Ford said with a laugh as Dipper rushed past him to head upstairs.

“I will!” Dipper exclaimed before continuing to up to his room.

Bill was sitting in Mabel’s bed with her, Waddles, and Gompers, watching something on her phone. Mabel greeted him, but Bill was too focused on whatever they were watching. Dipper didn’t pay too much attention to the others and focused more on setting up the game for him and Ford. It gave him a relaxing sense of normality, which was something he desperately craved these days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> iiii didnt mean to wait this long to update, i just have zero concept of time and feel like i just updated last week lol  
> sorry that this chapter was a bit uneventful! im working up to some more interesting things uwu


	28. author's note

hi y'all!

i know it's been a good couple of months. i've been putting off writing something like this because i kept thinking "oh maybe i'll come back to it and i'm writing this too soon" but its clear that my disappearance needs to be explained!

so, in short, i'm not going to be continuing reformed for the time being. i only ever want to really write whatever im hyperfixating on, which currently isn't gravity falls. i dont want to say that im completely abandoning this fic, because there is a strong possibility i might come back and write it again BUT for the time being, reformed will be discontinued. 

i really, really appreciate all the support i've received from y'all. i never expected to get so much! it really inspired me to write more and become a more confident writer in general. i cant express how thankful i am.

sorry about not posting about this sooner, i'm really sorry to disappoint everyone :(


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